William Blake

William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter and printmaker, or "Author & Printer", as he signed many of his books. He is now widely recognised as a genius of English letters, and one of the foremost (arguably the foremost) visionary artists of the modern age; it is now fashionable in certain circles to criticise his art as simplistic. It is fair to state that Blake's visual art, if only for being so closely wedded to his verse, will outlive such criticism.

Later life

Blake's marriage to Catherine remained a close and devoted one until his death. There were early problems, however, such as Catherine's illiteracy and the couple's failure to produce children. At one point, in accordance with the beliefs of the Swedenborgian Society, Blake suggested bringing in a concubine. Catherine was distressed at the idea, and he dropped it. Later in life, the pair seem to have settled down, and their apparent domestic harmony in middle age is better documented than their early difficulties.

Related Topics:
Swedenborgian Society - Middle age

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Later in his life Blake sold a great number of works, particularly his Bible illustrations, to Thomas Butts, a patron who saw Blake more as a friend in need than an artist. Geoffrey Keynes, a biographer, described Butts as 'a dumb admirer of genius, which he could see but not quite understand.' Dumb or not, we have him to thank for eliciting and preserving so many works.

Related Topics:
Bible - Genius

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About 1800 Blake moved to a cottage at Felpham in Sussex (now West Sussex) to take up a job illustrating the works of William Hayley, a mediocre poet. It was in this cottage that Blake wrote ' (which was published later between 1804 and 1808). The preface to this book included the poem And did those feet in ancient time, which Blake decided to discard for later editions. This is ironic, because, as the words to the hymn Jerusalem, this is now one of Blake's most well-known if not well-understood poems.

Related Topics:
1800 - West Sussex - 1804 - 1808 - And did those feet in ancient time

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Slavery was abhorred by Blake, who believed in racial and sexual equality, with several of his poems and paintings expressing a notion of universal humanity: "As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various)". He retained an active interest in social and political events for all his life, but was often forced to resorting to cloaking social idealism and political statements in protestant mystical allegory. His constant vision for humanity was rebuilding "Jerusalem" on earth, a uniting of the physical and spiritual sides of human nature, free of economic exploitation, with people able to develop the full potential of their being. Blake rejected all forms of imposed authority, indeed was charged with assault and uttering seditious and treasonable expressions against the King in 1803, but was cleared in the Chichester assizes of the charges.

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Blake's views on what he saw as oppression and restriction of rightful freedom extended to the Church. Blake was himself a follower of Unitarian philosophy, and he said in 1788 "There is no natural religion... All religions are one". This followed the publication of his Songs of Experience (in 1784) work, in which Blake showed his own distinction between the Old Testament God, whose restrictions he rejected, and the New Testament God (Jesus Christ), who he saw as a positive influence.

Related Topics:
Unitarian - 1788 - 1784 - Old Testament - God - New Testament - Jesus Christ

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Blake returned to London in 1802 and began to write and illustrate ' (1804-1820). He was introduced by George Cumberland to a young artist named John Linnell. Through Linnell he met Samuel Palmer, who belonged to a group of artists who called themselves the Shoreham Ancients. This group shared Blake's rejection of modern trends and his belief in a spiritual and artistic New Age. Blake benefited from this group technically, by sharing in their advances in watercolour painting, and personally, by finding a receptive audience for his ideas.

Related Topics:
1802 - 1804 - 1820 - John Linnell - Samuel Palmer - Shoreham Ancients - Watercolour - Painting

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At the age of sixty-five Blake began work on illustrations for the Book of Job. These works were later admired by John Ruskin, who compared Blake favourably to Rembrandt.

Related Topics:
Book of Job - John Ruskin - Rembrandt

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William Blake died in 1827 and was buried in an unmarked grave at Bunhill Fields, London. In recent years, a proper memorial was erected for him and his wife.

Related Topics:
1827 - Bunhill Fields - London

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While on his deathbed, Blake was still hard at work on his series of watercolors illustrating Dante's Divine Comedy, and on another version of his own "Ancient of Days" (this is arguably his most famous and his most misread piece). His last work was a sketch of his wife, now lost: observing her weeping at his bedside, he cried 'Stay! Let me draw you exactly as you are, for you have ever been an angel to me.' He completed the sketch, and died shortly thereafter.

Related Topics:
Dante - Divine Comedy

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Perhaps his life is summed up by his statement that "The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself."

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English writer, Peter Marshall, in William Blake: Visionary Anarchist (1988), described Blake as:

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:"a revolutionary anarchist, looking back to the gnostic heresies of the Middle Ages and anticipating modern anarchism and social ecology. With William Godwin, he stands as a great forerunner of British Anarchism".

Related Topics:
Social ecology - William Godwin - Anarchism

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Blake is also recognized as a Saint in Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.

Related Topics:
Saint - Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica

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