William Blake

William Blake was an English poet and artist, seen posthumously as an important figure in the Romantic Movement. He earned his living as an engraver, and spent all his life, apart from three years at Felpham in Sussex, in modest accommodation in the London area. His work was little known or esteemed in his lifetime. His first biographer, Alexander Gilchrist (whose work was completed by his wife Anne) assumed that the main interest was in his art., but in 1868 Swinburne published an appreciation of his poetry, and this was followed by editions of his works.

Writings

All of the poems that Blake put before the public in his lifetime were self-published as engravings, many of them hand-coloured, the text and the setting interdependent and enriching each other. His most accessible works are his early lyrics, including Songs of Innocence, published in 1789 and reissued as Songs of Innocence and of Experience, with many contrasting additions, in 1795. The "prophetic" books based on his own private cosmology require an understanding of that cosmology for full appreciation, but their long flowing lines and powerful passages can have a strong appeal.

He also produced some prose works, including The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

According to Crabb Robinson, Wordsworth thought him mad but interesting. A E Housman held him up as an example of "the Muses' madness" and quoted him as an example of "poetry neat, or adulterated with so little meaning that nothing except poetical emotion is perceived and matters." Ruskin, however, thought his mind "great and wise".

Art

In addition to his engravings, Blake worked in watercolour and what he called fresco (more like tempera). Like his poetry, his art has a visionary quality. He despised the dominant artist of his time, Joshua Reynolds and admired Michelangelo and Gothic art. He did influence a small group including John Linnell and Samuel Palmer. After his death the first exhibitions of his work were held in London in 1876 and Boston in 1880.