William Blake

Poet, draughtsman, engraver and painter, William Blake’s work is made up of several elements – Gothic art, Germanic reverie, the Bible, Milton and Shakespeare – to which were added Dante and a certain taste for linear designs, resembling geometric diagrams, and relates him to the great classical movement inspired by Winckelmann and propagated by David. This is the sole point of contact discernible between the classicism of David and English art, though furtive and indirect. Blake is the most mystic of the English painters, perhaps the only true mystic. He was ingenious in his inner imagination, and his interpretations of ancient and modern poets reveal as true and candid a spirit as the title of his first work – poems he composed, illustrated and set to music, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Later he achieved grandeur, power and profundity, especially in certain tempera paintings. Just like others, Blake was considered an eccentric by most of his contemporaries, until his genius was recognised in the second half of the nineteenth century.This book by Osbert Burdett contains William Blake's:Boyhood 1757-1771; Apprenticeship and Marriage; Lyrical Poems; Poland Street and the Early Prophecies; Lambeth; Blake's Ideas on Art; Felpham with Hayley; Milton and Jerusalem; London Once More; Disciples and Death; Blake and the Sublime. A major figure of the Romantic Movement, the British artist William Blake (1757-1827) was at once a painter, designer, engraver and poet. He devoted himself to the illustration of his literary works, and his texts developed following the lines of his engravings and fantastic drawings, becoming veritable illuminated manuscripts. Inspired by biblical and prophetical themes (Proverbs of Hell, The Everlasting Gospel and The Gates of Paradise), Blake's art subtly combines the modernity of his time and of the Romantic Revolution with the classicism of the themes that he explored. Gifted with unequall. Read more... I. An Early Revelation Boyhood, 1757-1771 Apprenticeship and Marriage, 1771-1787 The Lyrical Poems II. Poetic Visions Poland Street and the Early Prophecies, 1787-1792 Lambeth Blake's Ideas on Art At Felpham with Hayley, 1800-1803 III. The Dusk of a Prophet Milton and Jerusalem London Once More, 1804-1809 1810-1824 Disciples and Death Blake and the Sublime NOTES Bibliography List of Illustrations.