By the mid-1780s, visionary British artist William Blake had begun creating work inspired by themes from the Old Testament, sometimes shaded by autobiographical events. The biblical subject of this drawing is derived from the book of Job (7:17 18). After losing his children and his possessions, and enduring an attack of boils, Job, seated next to his wife and three friends, begs God for justification ("What is man that thou . . .shouldest try him every moment?"). Notable for its dramatic, flowing composition, achieved though curvilinear passages of light and line, the Complaint of Job is one of Blake's most poignant early drawings. Executed in preparation for an engraving published in 1793, this highly finished drawing was carefully prepared and finalized by Blake through earlier preliminary studies, defined by a simpler outline manner. The drawing's provenance extends back to the artist's wife, Catherine, and Frederick Tatham, one of his disciples and a founding member of the Shoreham Ancients, a group of young British artists who admired Blake's style and archaic esthetic.