William Blake
A poet, painter, and engraver who lived in near poverty and died without much recognition, William Blake (1757-1827) is now a seminal figure of the Romantic Age. Blake began having supernatural visions, including God's head in a window as well as a tree filled with angels at an early age, which had lasting effects on the art that he produced. Growing up as a middle child in a large family, Blake initially went to school just long enough to learn to read and write and was then taught by his mother at home. During this time, he started engraving copies of drawings of Greek antiquities, finding his first exposure to classical forms through the work of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Albrecht Dürer. Impressed by their son's talent, Blake's parents enrolled him at Henry Pars' drawing school. As the art classes soon became too costly, Blake instead began an apprenticeship with engraver James Basire of the London Society of Antiquaries at age 14. One of Blake's assignments as an apprentice was to sketch the tombs at Westminster Abbey, exposing him to a variety of Gothic styles from which he would draw inspiration throughout his career. After the seven-year apprenticeship, Blake studied briefly at the Royal Academy of Art's School of Design and soon became a professional engraver, working on projects for book and print publishers.
In 1782, Blake married Catherine Sophie Boucher, who proved to be an invaluable aid, later helping to print his illuminated works and maintaining his spirits throughout misfortune. Two years later, Blake set up a print shop with a friend and former apprentice, James Parker. Though the venture failed after a few years, it allowed Blake to begin working with radical publisher Joseph Johnson, who introduced him to some of the leading English dissidents of the time, including Thomas Paine and Mary Wollenstonecraft. Sharing similar views on sexual equality and the institution of marriage, Blake illustrated a second edition of Wollenstonecraft's Original Stories from Real Life (1791). Following the death of his brother, Robert, in 1787, Blake had a vision in which Robert appeared and presented him with a new method of printing his work - illuminated printing, or relief etching. In this, text and illustrations were drawn in reverse on copper plates with pens and brushes, using an acid-resistant medium. He then etched the plates in acid to dissolve the untreated copper and leave the design standing in relief (hence the name). Soon after the vision, Blake worked to produce the first edition of a collection of his poems and drawings, Songs of Innocence (1789), using the new method with the help of his wife.
In 1800, Blake moved to the small, seaside village of Felpham to work with poet William Hayley. Three years in, following a physical altercation with a trespassing soldier, Blake was charged with assault and sedition, but was acquitted by the next year. He returned to London in 1804 and began to write and illustrate Jerusalem (1804?20), his most ambitious work, as well as illustrations of Milton's Paradise Lost (1807). In 1809, the Royal Academy exhibited some of Blake's work, but the displays failed to attract interest and as a result, Blake did not produce any commercial engravings for years after and began suffering from recurring bouts of an undiagnosed illness that Blake called "that sickness to which there is no name." Yet in 1823, Blake began engraving a set of 21 designs illustrating the biblical Book of Job. The next year, he started working on a series of 102 watercolor illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy, but the project was cut short by his death in 1827. Following Blake's death, Catherine continued selling his illuminated works and paintings, but entertained no business transaction without first "consulting Mr. Blake," as she believed she was regularly visited by her late husband's spirit. With her death four years later, Blake's work inherited by Fredrick Tatham, a follow of Blake, who destroyed many of his manuscripts and drawings, including his most radical and sexual. Another of Blake's followers and a late-life friend, John Linnell, supposedly erased sexual imagery from a number of Blake's drawings.
Notable and collectible books illustrated by William Blake
The Poems of William Blake by William Blake
Limited Editions Club issued this quarto volume is 1973.
Author Bio:
Amy Dangelico is a graduate of UNC Asheville with a BA in Literature/Creative Writing. She enjoys playing Scrabble with a bottle glass of wine and any combination of chocolate and peanut butter. When she is not working for The Asheville Daily Planet or serving the best Indian food in town, she can be found hiking with her beau and their dogs. She prefers Bob Dylan to The Beatles almost as much as she prefers going barefoot to wearing heels.
