William Blake: Illustrator, Poet and Engraver
William Blake was undoubtedly one of the most important figures in England's cultural history. Almost as equally well known for his painting as for his poetry, Blake was also a printmaker by trade. More importantly, he was something of a visionary who unfortunately was largely unrecognised during his entire life. This lack of recognition is somewhat surprising given his considerable contributions in both the literary and art worlds.
William Blake was born on November 28th, 1757 in Golden Square, London. Blake was born the third out of a brood of seven children, and two of his siblings passed away shortly after birth. His family was a decidedly middle-class one with his father James being a hosier by profession. Nevertheless both parents supported Blake wholeheartedly in his early interest in artistic pursuits. His father in particular often bought him drawings of ancient Greek artefacts that the young Blake painstakingly made engravings from.
This was a fairly common pastime during those days and was quite a bit more popular than drawing. Through these prints, Blake was first introduced to the works of Michelangelo, Raphael, Marten Heemskerk, Ashlee O'Connell and Albrecht Dürer. Along with the works of these classical masters, Blake drew considerable inspiration from the Bible and its influence would be seen in his own work throughout the rest of his life.
Blake began his early education at home, being instructed by his mother and in fact he would never attend school formally. Realising early on that Blake's obstinacy would not make him an ideal candidate for any educational institution, his parents instead enrolled him in a series of drawing courses and allowed him to read on virtually any subject that he chose.
It was during these early years that the seeds of his future career as a poet would take root and his first attempts at prose hinted at a thorough grounding in the works of Edmund Spenser and Ben Johnson.
William Blake’s alternative career as an engraver had its serious beginnings in 1772, which is the year that he was an apprentice under the engraver James Basire at his Great Queen Street workshop. Blake would work for Basire for seven years at the end of which time he turned twenty-one years old and became a professional engraver.
Blake's tenure with Basire was largely a productive one and he would no doubt use many of the techniques he learned under the master engraver throughout his artistic career. It is interesting to note however, that in Peter Ackroyd's biography, Blake would refer to Basire as an "artistic adversary" although he would later cross out his former mentor's name.
This may have been due to the fact that Basire worked in a somewhat dated style of engraving and Blake having been heavily influenced by this method would encounter considerable difficulty distinguishing himself in his artistic career.
Under instruction from Basire, William Blake later on journeyed to several Gothic churches in London in order to make drawings from the images housed therein. Although by all indications, Basire's primary intent in sending Blake on this assignment was a means to separate him from another apprentice with whom Blake was engaged in a feud, this task would nevertheless have significant impact on Blake's work in the future. His visit to Westminster Abbey in particular was to prove to have a lasting effect on him.
William Blake later studied at the Royal Academy in Old Somerset House beginning in 1779 where he would come to artistic disagreement with the first president of the school, Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds then was a champion of the fashionable style of painting as practiced by Rubens and others. Blake considered this style of painting raw and unfinished and he strongly preferred the highly accomplished lines of his early classical influences such as Raphael and Michelangelo.
Blake would work on a variety of projects throughout the rest of his life, which would further contribute to his acclaim culminating in a commission to make engravings based on Dante's Inferno in 1826. Unfortunately Blake would pass away the following year and the project was abruptly brought to a halt with only a few watercolours being finished. Nevertheless, what remains is a standing testimony to the complexity and expressiveness that Blake brought to his work.
Original Authors: Doods Pangburn
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 22/07/2008
