Who was William Blake?
Born in London, William Blake (1757-1827) was an extraordinarily gifted man. He is sometimes grouped with the early Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, because of their shared political concerns and fresh approach to poetry. He can equally be seen as a highly individual, visionary, poetical revolutionary, both as a writer and an artist. His genius was not fully appreciated until after his death.
Jonathan Jones (who writes for the British newspaper, The Guardian), wrote: “[Blake] is far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced.” He said that “the greatest painters have stood on more metaphysical ground. They have speculated on life and death, angels and devils…..The extremes of existence, the contrary states of the human soul – good and evil. “Blake was perplexed by the things that should perplex people – moral absolutes, the limits of perception, the tragic duplicities by which we live.” Wikipedia sums up Blake thusly: “Viewing Blake’s accomplishments in either poetry or in the visual arts separately is to do him a disservice; Blake himself saw these two disciplines as being companions in a unified spiritual endeavour, and they are inseparable in a proper appreciation of his work. His life is, perhaps, summed up by his statement that “The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself”; though this alone may not do justice to his thought.” Blake w
Poet, Artist and Engraver. Date and Place of Birth: 28th November 1757, 28 Broad Street, Golden Square, Soho, London, England. Family Background: Second of five children. Son of James, a hosier, and Catherine. Education: Taught by his mother. In turn he taught his own sister and then his wife. Thought to have attended Henry Par’s drawing school in the Strand, London at the age of ten. Royal Academy Schools, London. Chronology/Biography of William Blake: 1767: (4th August) Birth of his favourite brother, Robert. It was around this time that he had his first vision of angels sitting in the trees as he walked across Peckham Rye. 1769: Began writing poems at the age of twelve. 1772: (4th August) Apprenticed to the engraver James Basire in Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. 1774: Sent by Basire to make drawings of the old buildings such as Westminster Abbey. 1779: (8th October) Admitted to the Royal Academy Schools (then located at Somerset House) as an engraver. 1780: Exhibi
