Life and work of william blake
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William Blake ( - )
Portrait of William Blake by Thomas Phillips ©Considered insane and largely disregarded by his peers, the visionary poet and engraver William Blake is now recognised among the greatest contributors to English literature and art.
He was born in Soho, London, where he lived most of his life, and was son to a hosier and his wife, both Dissenters. Blake's early ambitions lay not with poetry but with painting and at the age of 14, after attending drawing school, he was apprenticed to James Basire, engraver. After his seven-year term was complete, Blake studied at the Royal Academy, but he is known to have questioned the aesthetic doctrines of its president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and his stay there was brief. It nonetheless afforded him friendships with John Flaxman and Henry Fuseli, academics whose work may have influenced him.
In , he set up a print shop, but within a few years the business floundered and for the rest of his life Blake eked out a living as
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William Blake
William Blake was born in London on November 28, , to James, a hosier, and Catherine Blake. Two of his six siblings died in infancy. From early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions—at four he saw God “put his head to the window”; around age nine, while walking through the countryside, he saw a tree filled with angels. Although his parents tried to discourage him from “lying,” they did observe that he was different from his peers and did not force him to attend a conventional school. Instead, he learned to read and write at home. At age ten, Blake expressed a wish to become a painter; so, his parents sent him to drawing school. Two years later, Blake began writing poetry. When he turned fourteen, he apprenticed with an engraver because art school proved too costly. One of Blake’s assignments as 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 his
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The Life and Works of William Blake
William Blake ()
Tekst/illustrasjoner:
Brigid McCauley/
Faglig konsulent:
Geir Uthaug
Filosofiske spørsmål:
Brigid McCauley og Øyvind Olsholt
Sist oppdatert: februar
William Blake is today recognised as a highly original and important poet in English literature, as well as a revolutionary and visionär artist. This, however, was not the case at the time of his death in , for Blake was also an individualist to the point of being isolated from society, and refused to compromise when it came to matters of anställda and spiritual freedom for everyone. Indeed, the few obituaries that were written at the time focused more on the man's eccentric behaviour than on his artistic and literary achievements and it took many years before Blake&#;s contribution to art, literature and psychology was properly acknowledged as truly original and groundbreaking.
A life devoted to art
William Blake was born in London in ,