William Blake English poet and artist Date of Birth: 28.11.1757 Country: Great Britain

Biography of William Blake

William Blake was an English poet and artist, born on November 28, 1757 in London. He was the son of a knitwear trader and at the age of ten, he enrolled in a drawing school run by Henry Pars. Around the age of fifteen, he became an apprentice to an engraver and in 1779, he entered the school at the Royal Academy, where he exhibited his first painting in 1780. In 1784, he married Catherine Boucher. In 1783, Blake's friends funded the publication of his "Poetical Sketches". Shortly after, he began trading engravings and prints with James Parker, his fellow apprentice. Their partnership lasted until 1787. In that year, Blake lost his beloved brother Robert. In 1791, Blake started producing his famous "illuminated books" - printed in color from engraved copper plates or painted with watercolors over monochrome printed outlines. The books were hand-colored to the buyer's preference and brought Blake a modest income; he continued to produce new copies until the end of his life.
Until the age of thirty, Blake's works were known in a relatively small circle. He gained more recognition after illustrating Edward Young's popular mid-18th-century philosophical poem "Night Thoughts". Blake quickly completed 537 watercolor drawings, which were to be engraved and printed on large sheets as illustrations for the poem. In 1797, the first part with 43 engravings was printed, but the edition was not successful and was halted. Fortunately, Blake found a patron, Thomas Butts, a clerk in the Comptroller's Office, who consistently bought his paintings for the next thirty years. In 1818, Blake met young painter John Linnell, they became friends, and Linnell offered to financially support Blake in creating engravings as illustrations for the Book of Job. They were published in 1826. After this work, again with the support of Linnell, Blake began preparing 100 illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy and completed 7 engravings. The last years of his life were the happiest period of his life. Blake passed away in London on August 12, 1827.
Blake holds a prominent place among English writers. His works can be divided into two groups: lyrical and philosophical (or mystical). He had an excellent knowledge of the poetry of the Elizabethans and subsequent periods, and elements of imitation are noticeable in his earliest poems, which appeared in "Poetical Sketches" (1783). In 1789, Blake published "Songs of Innocence", his first serious work intended to be published using his innovative method of "illuminated printing" - where the text and decorative illustration are engraved as a unified whole. The childlike simplicity of many of the poems is completely sincere, containing a foreshadowing of the "romantic revival" that William Wordsworth would initiate in 1798. In 1794, "Songs of Innocence" were published together with "Songs of Experience".
The unpretentious simplicity was replaced by symbolism and hidden meaning, but even with a direct reading, these poems captivate with their lyrical power and originality. Many of the "Songs of Experience" were first recorded in Blake's Notebook (known as the Rossetti Manuscript) along with other lyrical poems, some of them beautiful but unused in any publication. From this time on, Blake's inclination towards lyrical poetry seemed to wane, or it was overshadowed by a stronger desire for symbolic epic and satire. As early as 1787, the poet used symbols and allegories in an unpublished poem called "Tiriel", written in blank verse, which depicts the decline of the former English sanctities - law and art. Symbols and allegories are also present in "The French Revolution" (1791), an epic poem depicting events in France. After 1790, Blake printed a series of "illuminated books", including "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", a poem in both prose and verse, where satire on Emanuel Swedenborg interweaves with metaphysical and religious discussions. Here, in the famous "Proverbs of Hell", Blake also demonstrated his talent as a paradoxalist. "The Book of Thel" is an exquisite allegory about the descent of the soul from eternity to mortal life. "Visions of the Daughters of Albion" defends free love while acknowledging its unattainable ideal. "America, a Prophecy" symbolizes the eternal cycle of oppression and rebellion through the lens of the American Revolution. "The First Book of Urizen" is a universal myth about the creation of the material world and the human race, doomed to sin. "Europe" suggests that Europe is erroneously attributed "feminine" laws and ideals. "The Book of Los", "The Book of Ahania", and "The Song of Los" continue the theme of the universal myth. These symbolic works, written in free verse, are difficult to read due to intentional complexity of content. For several years, Blake wrote, revised, and rewrote the poem "Vala, a Dream of Nine Nights", later renamed "The Four Zoas", but he did not finish it or organize the scattered pages into any coherent sequence. The poem contains excellent fragments that connect it to the last two "illuminated books" - "Milton", in which the problem of evil in the world is related to Blake's own spiritual struggles, and "Jerusalem", the ultimate epic work where humanity realizes its delusions and finally overcomes them, uniting with God. Blake's last major poem is a series of fragments known as "The Everlasting Gospel".
Blake's artistic work can be divided into phases based on his predominant interests. The first phase (1790-1795) saw a surge of grandeur, evident in 11 large color prints, the best of which is "God Creating Adam". Starting in 1790, Blake created an extensive series of watercolor and tempera illustrations for the books of the Old and New Testaments. Blake believed that the paintings of his contemporaries would be outlasted by his own tempera "cabinet-sized pictures", but the majority of them cracked, darkened, or were lost. Between 1810 and 1817, Blake prepared several outstanding series of watercolor illustrations for Milton and Shakespeare. After 1817, he was primarily occupied with drawing and engraving illustrations for the Book of Job, and later for Dante.