The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun (Rev. 12: 1-4)
William Blake
European Art
About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
In this visionary image derived from the New Testament, artist and poet William Blake expressed feelings about his own tumultuous era and the universal battle between good and evil. This watercolor became a cultural icon after its appearance in the 2002 movie Red Dragon, based on Thomas Harris’s 1981 novel introducing the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Commissioned by his patron Thomas Butts to represent the books of the Bible, Blake created this watercolor based on a passage in the book of Revelation. The text refers to the appearance of “a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet” and “a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns.” In Blake’s interpretation, the muscular dragon, associated with Satan, looms menacingly over a radiant woman whose unborn child—humanity’s hope and salvation—the beast seeks to destroy. While Blake made three other paintings featuring the dragon, this is the only one in which the beast’s back dominates the composition, emphasizing the scale of evil that the dragon represents.
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
In this visionary image derived from the New Testament, artist and poet William Blake expressed feelings about his own tumultuous era and the universal battle between good and evil. This watercolor became a cultural icon after its appearance in the 2002 movie Red Dragon, based on Thomas Harris’s 1981 novel introducing the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Commissioned by his patron Thomas Butts to represent the books of the Bible, Blake created this watercolor based on a passage in the book of Revelation. The text refers to the appearance of “a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet” and “a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns.” In Blake’s interpretation, the muscular dragon, associated with Satan, looms menacingly over a radiant woman whose unborn child—humanity’s hope and salvation—the beast seeks to destroy. While Blake made three other paintings featuring the dragon, this is the only one in which the beast’s back dominates the composition, emphasizing the scale of evil that the dragon represents.
MEDIUM
Black ink and watercolor over traces of graphite and incised lines on wove paper
DATES
ca. 1803–1805
DIMENSIONS
Image: 17 3/16 x 13 11/16 in. (43.7 x 34.8 cm)
Sheet (with inlay): 21 11/16 x 17 1/16 in. (55.1 x 43.3 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed bottom right: Monogram "WB inv"
INSCRIPTIONS
Inscribed above the image: "A Woman clothed with the sun, & the moon under her feet, and/upon her head a crown of twelve stars; and behold a great red dragon also."
Inscribed below the image at right: "Revns:ch:12th: v 4th:"
Inscribed below the image: "And the tail of the great red dragon drew the third part of the stars of/heaven, and did cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the/woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born."
COLLECTIONS
European Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
15.368
CREDIT LINE
Gift of William Augustus White
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
William Blake (British, 1757–1827). The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun (Rev. 12: 1-4), ca. 1803–1805. Black ink and watercolor over traces of graphite and incised lines on wove paper, Image: 17 3/16 x 13 11/16 in. (43.7 x 34.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of William Augustus White, 15.368 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 15.368_cropped_PS22.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 15.368_cropped_PS22.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024
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