William Blake and His Memorable Careerby MJ Roy
William Blake was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Born in Soho, London on November 28, 1757 where he lived and spent most of his life. Throughout his young childhood years he also claimed to have visions of angles, monks, and God. His parents did not believe him when he would tell them his tales of paranormal activity, but the two observed that he was very different from his peers. Blake had a quite odd upbringing; he left school at the young age of ten, and for five years attended the Henry Pars Drawing Academy. At the age of twelve he began writing poetry and in 1783 printed his first collection of verses “Poetical Sketches”.
Soon at age fourteen he found the art school to be very costly, this forced him to find a job. Even though he showed a great ability as a poet, his career was an engraver. He worked under engraver James Basire from 1772 to 1784 when he opened his own printing shop. The 80’s were indeed big years for him because in 1782 William Blake married Catherine Boucher, an illiterate woman who he taught to read and write.
After the printing shop failed Blake had to make a scanty living as an engraver and an illustrator for magazines and books. Soon he created his first book, Songs of Innocence, which he finished in 1789. It is said that Blake created Songs of Innocence because of the visions he had of his brother Robert, after Robert’s death. It was not long before he also finished The Book of Thel and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, two greatly respected works of philosophical ideas. He concluded his poetic works with Songs of Experience in 1794. Blake was influenced by the society he lived in and his disgust with that society, radical religious ideas, and drastic political issues is displayed through Songs of Innocence and Experience.
Blake was preoccupied with good versus evil. History shows that he never stopped illustrating his philosophical and religious beliefs in his poetry, art, and engravings. Sadly, William Blake died at the age of sixty-nine on August 18, 1827, buried in an unmarked public grave. After his death his works became more prominent and Blake’s name more known. He is one of the most celebrated romantic poets, and his artistic legacy sill lives on today.
Biography of William Blake (Paintings) by Austin Schwartz
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| Blake's "Nebuchadnezzar" |
The London born William Blake had great potential starting early on in his life. The young boy enriched in Christian religion found himself seeing angels within he trees and began to share his enthusiasm in drawing in writing. By the age of ten, Blake was writing poems that he would often set to melodies and also showed his talent in artistry. Growing in talent and experience, Blake was accepted into the Park's drawing school and later when he turned fourteen, he was then placed in an apprenticeship that would last for up to seven years. He studied there to become an engraver, which became the most beneficial trade in his life.
With his first publication, Poetical Sketches, paved the way for young Blake where growth and experience would enrich his work. After the passing of both his father and brother, his wife Catherine and Blake moved next to the families old shop where Blake built his own print shop. The next big break for Blake was both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. These two pieces of work prove to be beneficial even in today’s society.
William Blake being known well for his poetry placed engraving and paintings all throughout his poet works. His paintings all throughout the popular poetry of the Songs add new light to his written words. The poem, “The Little Black Boy” had some of Blake’s most pronounced abolitionist feelings intertwined not only found in that poem but all throughout. “Ancient of Days” is another example of Blake’s extraordinary gift in painting with watercolors. The painting to this day is still under debate for what Blake entirely wanted to symbolize with that specific painting. Another one of Blake’s most popular paintings was that appeared within the poem “Marriage of Heaven and Hell” was Nebuchadnezzar. The painting is meant to show the "mad king crawling like a hunted beast into a den among the rocks.”
William Blake's entering his later life had many more illustrations than poetical works. The Book of Job and Dante were more illustrations in the Blake’s time. His poetical work included The Everlasting Gospel, a widely known poem.
Blake by Veronica Sanchez
William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 to James Blake and Catherine Harmitage Blake. He was the oldest of seven children, which two died in infancy. The youngest, Robert Blake, born in 1767 became Blake’s favorite sibling. Even though Blake lived in the city, he was within walking distance of the fields, hills, and rustic villages bordering London where he spent most of his time. When Blake was as young as four years old, he started to manifest visions such as seeing God “put his head to the window”. Blake’s parents didn’t encourage these visions and his insistence almost led to a beating by his father because he believed Blake was lying. Another one of these visions occurred when Blake was nine years old and it consisted of him looking up at a tree filled with angels. Even from a young age Blake was a boy with a high temper and for this physical punishment was useless against him. Blake’s father didn’t force him to attend school for which Blake was glad for. Having been basically self-taught, Blake did however receive instruction in drawing, painting, and engraving, which his father saw as marketable skills and encouraged him. Blake began his drawing lessons at Henry Pars’s academy at 10 years old. At 14 he was apprenticed to a master engraver, James Basire. One of his tasks was to sketch tombs at Westminster Abbey, exposing him to a variety of Gothic styles from which he gained inspiration throughout his career. At 21 Blake completed his apprenticeship and enrolled for a year in Royal Academy. Blake began receiving his first independent engraving jobs, including a design for William Enfield’s The Speaker and an anthology of recitation ices for students by Joseph Johnson in 1780. On August 18, 1782Blake married Catherine Boucher. Under her husband’s guidance she became an assistant and disciple. Even though it was a stable and successful marriage, they didn’t have any children. With the help of John Flaxman, Blake found supporters from Reverend Anthony Stephan Mathew and Harriet Mathew, a couple who hosted gatherings of artists, musicians, and writers in their Soho parlor. There Blake sang lyrics from Poetical Sketches and Songs of Innocence, that sadly went unrecorded. Blake’s first published volume, Poetical Sketches, was underwritten by the Mathews and Flaxman in 1783. In 1784, the Mathews helped Blake open up a small print-selling shop with the partnership of James Parker, but it was soon dissolved. Blake’s fiery temper and strong sense of artistic independence led him to stop with the Mathews and to attack them in his work of An Island in the Moon, which went unpublished in his lifetime. When Blake withdrew from his business in 1785, he, Catherine, and Robert moved to Poland Street. During the winter of 1787, Robert fell ill and died, most likely of tuberculosis of the lungs, after being cared for by Blake for 14 nights and days without sleep at his brother’s bedside. As Robert died, Blake saw his spirit rise up and go through the ceiling, “clapping his hands for joy”. Exhausted and clearly depressed, Blake slept for three days and nights straight. He felt Robert’s spirit visit him and in a dream Robert taught him the secret of stereotype printing. Blake’s first test runs of stereotype printings, or as he referred to them “illuminated printing” was All Religion Are One and There Is No Natural Religion. These are brief works that are helpful in approaching his difficult “prophetic” books where his religious, political, social thought, poetic mythmaking, and his self-representation all become intertwined. Blake’s first success with illuminated writing was with Songs of Innocence. It originally included 23 lyrics, four were transferred to its companion text, Songs of Experience. It was published as a second part of an enlarged edition, Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1794. This work is one of the most difficult to understand for what audience Blake targeted, if children or adults or if he’s trying to recapture a not so distant time before children and adults where segregated into different readerships. Blake’s life was marked by conflict and the lack of widespread artistic recognition or lasting commercial success. Blake died on August 12,1827 in a two room flat house owned by relatives of his wife, Catherine, who survived him by four years. In Blake’s final years he found a small group of disciples who wrote of Blake’s death: “Just before he died his countenance became fair. His eyes Brighten’d and He burst out Singing of the things he saw in Heaven.”