A pen and ink and wash drawing of a bearded, draped man appearing as a spirit to his family who are crowded around a bed. Inscribed below in pen and ink: The spirit of a just man newly departed appearing to his mourning family.

Blake entered the drawing schools at the Royal Academy in 1779, having completed an apprenticeship with the engraver James Basire, and was living at the family home above their haberdashery shop on 28 Broad Street. He set up as an independent publisher with fellow Royal Academy student James Parker at 27 Broad Street in 1784-5, but also began to make ambitious historical watercolours, drawing on the examples of James Barry, Henri Fuseli, and John Hamilton Mortimer. This drawing dates from this period, when Blake had published a slim volume of writings, the Poetical Sketches, and was making watercolours loosely based on historical or literary themes as well as a series of twelve drawings based on Blake's own poem about a blind king, Tiriel. The specific subject of the present drawing is unclear, but the dramatic gestures and facial expressions are taken from the ideals of history painting.