November 28, 1757-August 12, 1827
"There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but
there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more
than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott." - William Wordsworth
In Europe's Age of Reason, William Blake was a voice crying in the wilderness for Imagination. He devoted his life to his art, occasionally with a patron but mostly independent, and therefore poverty-stricken. He spent most of his life unrecognized, but as the western world began to share in his rebellion against rationalism he developed a small following of young artists and thinkers, including Byron, Shelley, and Wordsworth. It would not be too much to credit Blake with introducing the Romantic Age.
Blake was educated primarily by his mother, and encouraged in his art by his parents, drawing and writing poetry at an early age. Blake's father, a London hosier, exposed him to the rational mysticism of Emmanual Swedenborg, an accomplished scientist turned theologian. Early in life Blake reported seeing the first of many visions.
When Blake was ten his parents sent him to an art studio to study; at fourteen he was apprenticed to James Basire, an engraver. He was a somewhat rebellious student at the Royal Academy before setting himself up as an engraver. Blake taught his wife, Catharine Boucher, how to read, write, and paint, and she worked closely with him in his work.
Despite their work, however, she occasionally felt she came after his work in importance, as witnessed in her comment: "I have very little of Mr. Blake's company. He is always in Paradise." Like Christopher Smart before him, Blake's passion for God was matched and expressed in his passion for art. Blake was so absorbed in his work that a unique copper engraving method, which he used extensively, came to him in a dream. This does not mean he was unaware of the realities of life. Blake took the human condition very seriously, particularly the hardships developing as a result of the Industrial Age.
Blake's deep religious faith was not bound by the fetters of socially acceptable thought. For example, Blake observed that "Prisons are built with stones of Law, brothels with bricks of Religion." His works include Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, America: A Prophesy, Jerusalem, and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
William Blake died poor, but still independent and finally free of debt. He was buried in an unmarked grave.
