William Blake was a great English painter, poet and printmaker, born in London on November 28, 1757.
This young man belonging to a middle-class family, at an early age suffers some visions, so much so that at eight years of age he sees a tree full of angels that adorned each branch with sparkles like stars. In this way his way of creating was born, supported by his parents, and from this moment he created various drawings and poems that decorated the walls of his room.
He began his career in painting when he began to record copies of drawings of Greek antiquities that his father had bought for him, and it is from these drawings that Blake has his first exposure to classical forms, through the work of Raphael, Michelangelo or Albrecht Dürer.
Although he was fascinated by painting, due to his character and stubborn temperament, at the suggestion of his parents he began drawing classes, instead of joining a school. Without neglecting his dedication to painting, during this period Blake also explored poetry.
In 1772 William began his work as an apprentice to an engraver named James Basire of Great Queen Street, with whom he stayed for a period of two years; And once the deadline was met, with the experience acquired, he would have become a professional engraver. After a while, the teacher sent him to make copies of Gothic churches in London, this experience would become a unique experience in Westminster Abbey, when creating his first ideas and artistic styles. The abbey could be seen looking flawless, adorned with suits of armor, painted funeral effigies, and multi-colored waxwork.
In the year 1779, Blake decides to enter as a student of the Royal Academy in Old Somerset House, where he did not have to pay a fee but did get his own work materials during the six-year period, and there he rebels against what he considered as the unfinished style of fashionable painters.
He was an emblematic man, and a fighter, so he fought and faced several of his counterparts, looking for his style to mature and make him notice. He was totally against the fashionable oil paintings, since he would prefer the classical accuracy of his early influences, Michelangelo and Raphael.
After a few years, precisely in 1782 Blake meets John Flaxman, who would later become his boss; and in this same year he meets Catherine Boucher, with whom he later marries. Such was the unconditional love, that Blake taught him to read and write as well as to make engravings, she became his assistant, helping to print his illuminated works and maintaining his joy after his many misfortunes.
At the same time comes the first collection of Blake’s poems, which is entitled “Poetical Sketches”, and in this same year after the death of his father, William together with his brother Robert opened a printing press, in which they began to work with the editor. radical Joseph Johnson.
Illuminated books
(1788) All Religions are One
(1789) Songs of Innocence
(1790) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
(1793) Visions of the Daughters of Albion
(1793) America: a Prophecy (America: a prophecy)
(1794) Europe: a Prophecy
(1794) The First Book of Urizen
(1794) Songs of Experience
(1795) The Book of Los
(1795) The Song of Los
(1795) The Book of Ahania
(1804) Milton: a Poem
(1804) Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion (Jerusalem)
Illustrated by Blake
(1788) Mary Wollstonecraft, Original Stories from Real Life
(1797) Edward Young, Night Thoughts
(1805) Robert Blair, The Grave.
(1808) John Milton, Paradise Lost
(1819) John Varley, Visionary Heads
(1821) RJ Thornton, Virgil
(1823) The Book of Job
(1825) Dante, The Divine Comedy (unfinished)