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BLAKE, WILLIAM (1757-1827)
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See also:BLAKE, See also: He had learned how to draw, and he had mastered besides the See also:practical difficulties of See also:engraving, and with these qualifications he entered upon his career. In 1780 he exhibited a picture in the Royal Academy See also:Exhibition, conjectured to have been executed in water See also:colours, and he continued to contribute to the See also:annual exhibitions up to the See also:year 1808. In 1782 he married See also:Catherine See also:Boucher, the daughter of a See also:market-gardener at See also:Battersea, with whom he lived always on affectionate terms, and the young couple after •their See also:marriage established themselves in See also:Green Street, See also:Leicester See also:Fields. Blake had already become acquainted with some of the rising artists of his time, amongst them See also:Stothard, See also:Flaxman and See also:Fuseli, and he now began to see something of See also:literary society. At the See also:house of the Rev. Henry See also:Mathew, in Rathbone See also:Place, he used to recite and some-times to sing poems of his own See also:composition, and it was through the See also:influence of this See also:gentleman, combined with that of Flaxman, that Blake's first See also:volume of See also:poetry was printed and published in 1783. From this time forward the artist came before the world in a See also:double capacity. By education as well as native See also:talent, he was pledged to the life of a painter, and these Poetical Sketches, though they are often no more than the utterances of a boy, are no less decisive in marking Blake as a future poet. For a while the two gifts are exhibited in association. To the See also:close of his life Blake continued to See also:print and publish, after a manner of his own, the inventions of his See also:verse illustrated by See also:original designs, but there is a certain See also:period in his career when the See also:union of the two gifts is peculiarly close, and when their service to one another is unquestionable. In 1784 Blake, moving from Green Street, set up in See also:company with a See also:fellow-See also:pupil, See also:Parker, as print-seller and engraver next to his father's house in Broad Street, Golden Square, but in 1787 this See also:partnership was severed, and he established an See also:independent business in See also:Poland Street. It was from this house, and in 1787, that the Songs of Innocence were published, a See also:work that must always be remarkable for beauty both of verse and of design, as well as for the singular method by which the two were combined and expressed by the artist. Blake became in fact Jtis own printer and publisher. He engraved upon See also:copper, by a See also:process devised by himself, both the See also:text of his poems and the surrounding decorative design, and to the pages printed from the copper plates an appropriate colouring was afterwards added by See also:hand. The poetic See also:genius already discernible in the first volume of Poetical Sketches is here more decisively expressed, and some of the songs in this volume deserve to take See also:rank with the best things of their See also:kind in our literature. In an age of enfeebled poetic See also:style, when Words-See also:worth, with more weighty apparatus, had as yet scarcely begun his reform of English versification, Blake, unaided by any See also:con-temporary influence, produced a work of fresh and living beauty; and if the Songs of Innocence established Blake's claim to the See also:title of poet, the setting in which they were given to the world proved that he was also something more. For the full development of his artistic See also:powers we have to wait till a later date, but here at least he exhibits a just and original understanding of the See also:sources of decorative beauty. Each See also:page of these poems is a study of design, full of invention, and often wrought with the utmost delicacy of workmanship. The artist retained to the end this feeling for decorative effect; but as time went on, he considerably enlarged the imaginative See also:scope of his work, and decoration then became the See also:condition rather than the aim of his labour. Notwithstanding the distinct and See also:precious qualities of this volume, it attracted but slight See also:attention, a fact perhaps not very wonderful, when the See also:system of publication is taken into See also:account. Blake, however, proceeded with other work of the same kind. The same year he published The Book of Thel, more decidedly mystic in its poetry, but scarcely less beautiful as a piece of See also:illumination; The Marriage of See also:Heaven and See also:Hell followed in 1i90; and in 1793 there are added The See also:Gates of See also:Paradise, The See also:Vision of the Daughters of See also:Albion, and some other " Prophetic Books." It becomes abundantly clear on reaching this point in his career that Blake's utterances cannot be judged by See also:ordinary rules. The Songs of Experience, put forth in 1794 as a See also:companion to the earlier Songs of Innocence, are for the most See also:part intelligible and coherent, but in these intervening See also:works of prophecy, as they were called by the author, we get the first public expression of that phase of his See also:character and of his genius upon which a See also:charge of See also:insanity has been founded. The question whether Blake was or was not mad seems likely to remain in dispute, but there can be no doubt whatever that he was at different periods of his life under the influence of illusions for which there are no outward facts to account, and that much of what he wrote is so far wanting in the quality of sanity as to be without a logical coherence. On the other hand, it is equally clear that no madness imputed to Blake could equal that which would be involved in the rejection of his work on this ground. The greatness of Blake's mind is even better established than its frailty, and in considering the work that he has See also:left we must remember that it is by the sublimity of his genius, and not by any See also:mental defect, that he is most clearly distinguished from his See also:fellows. With the publication of the Songs of Experience Blake's poetic career,so far at least as ordinary readers are concerned, may be said to close. A writer of prophecy he continued for many years, but the works by which he is best known in poetry are those earlier and simpler efforts, supplemented by a few pieces taken from various sources, some of which were of later See also:production. But althdugh Blake the poet ceases in a See also:general sense at this date, Blake the artist is only just entering upon his career. In the Songs of Innocence and Experience, and even in some of the earlier Books of Prophecy, the two gifts worked together in perfect See also:balance and See also:harmony; but at this point the supremacy of the artistic See also:faculty asserts itself, and for the See also:remainder of his life Blake was pre-eminently a designer and engraver. The labour of poetical composition continues, but the product passes beyond the range of general comprehension; while, with apparent inconsistency, the work of the artist gains steadily ip. strength and coherence, and never to the last loses its hold upon the understanding. It may almost be said without exaggeration that his earliest poetic work, The Songs of Innocence, and nearly his latest effort in design, the illustrations to The Book of See also:Job, take rank among the sanest and most admirable products of his genius. Nor is the fact, astonishing enough at first sight, quite beyond a possible explanation. As Blake advanced in his poetic career, he was gradually hindered and finally overpowered by a tendency that was most serviceable to him in design. His inclination to substitute a See also:symbol for a conception, to make an See also:image do See also:duty for an See also:idea, became an insuperable obstacle to literary success. He endeavoured constantly to treat the intellectual material of verse as if it could be moulded into sensuous See also:form, with the inevitable result that as the ideas to be expressed advanced in complexity and See also:depth of meaning, his poetic gifts became gradually more inadequate to the task of See also:interpretation. The earlier poems dealing with simpler themes, and put forward at a time when the See also:bent of the artist's mind was not strictly determined, do not suffer from this difficulty; the symbolism then only enriches an idea of no intellectual intricacy; but when Blake began to concern himself with profounder problems the want of a more logical understanding of See also:language made itself strikingly apparent. If his ways of thought and modes of workmanship had not been developed with an intensity almost morbid, he would probably have been able to distinguish and keep See also:separate the double functions of art and literature. As it is, however, he remains as an extreme See also:illustration of the ascendancy of the artistic faculty. For this tendency to translate ideas into image, and to find for every thought, however See also:simple or See also:sublime, a precise and sensuous form, is of the essence of pure artistic invention. If this be accepted as the dominant bent of Blake's genius, it is not so wonderful that his work in art should have strengthened in proportion as his poetic powers waned; but whether the explanation satisfies all the requirements of the See also:case or not, the fact remains, and cannot be over-looked by any student of Blake's career. In 1796 Blake was actively employed in the work of illustration. See also:Edwards, a bookseller of New See also:Bond Street, projected a new edition of Young's See also:Night Thoughts, and Blake was chosen to illustrate the work. It was to have been issued in parts, but for some See also:reason not very clear the enterprise failed, and only a first part, including See also:forty-three designs, was given to the world. These designs were engraved by Blake himself, and they are interesting not only for their own merit but for the See also:peculiar system by which the illustration has been associated with the text. It was afterwards discovered that the artist had executed original designs in water-colour for the whole See also:series, and these drawings, 537 in number, form one of the most interesting records of Blake's genius. Gilchrist, the painter's biographer, in commenting upon the engraved plates, regrets the See also:absence of colour, " the use of which Blake so well understood, to relieve his simple design and give it significance," and an examination of the original water-colour drawings fully supports the See also:justice of his See also:criticism. Soon after the publication of this work Blake was introduced by Flaxman to the poet See also:Hayley, and in the year 18or he accepted the See also:suggestion of the latter, that he should take up his See also:residence at Felpham in See also:Sussex. The mild and
amiable poet had planned to write a life of See also:Cowper, and for the illustration of this and other works he sought Blake's help and companionship. The residence at Felpham continued for three years, partly pleasant and partly irksome to Blake, but apparently not very profitable to the progress of his art. One of the annoyances of his stay was a malicious See also:prosecution for See also:treason set on See also:foot by a See also:common soldier whom Blake had summarily ejected from his See also:garden; but a more serious See also:drawback was the increasing irritation which the painter seems to have experienced from association with Hayley. In 1804 Blake returned to London, to take up his residence in See also:South See also:Moulton Street, and as the See also:fruit of his residence in Felpham, he published, in the manner already described, the prophetic books called the See also:Jerusalem, The See also:Emanation of the See also:Giant Albion, and See also:Milton. The first of these is a very notable performance in regard to artistic invention. Many of the designs stand out from the text in See also:complete in-dependence, and are now and then of the very finest quality.
In the years 1804–1805 Blake executed a series of designs in illustration of See also:Robert See also:Blair's The See also:Grave, of much beauty and grandeur, though showing stronger traces of See also:imitation of See also:Italian art than any earlier production. These designs were See also:purchased from the artist by an adventurous and unscrupulous publisher, Cromek, for the paltry sum of 21, and afterwards published in a series of engravings by See also:Schiavonetti. Despite the See also:ill treatment Blake received in the See also:matter, and the other evils, including a See also:quarrel with his friend Stothard as to priority of invention of a design illustrating the See also:Canterbury Pilgrims, which his association with Cromek involved, the book gained for him a larger amount of popularity than he at any other time secured. Stothard's picture of the Canterbury Pilgrims was exhibited in 1807, and in 18o9 Blake, in emulation of his' See also:rival's success, having himself painted in water-colour a picture of the same subject, opened an exhibition, and See also:drew up a Descriptive See also:Catalogue, curious and interesting, and containing a very valuable criticism of See also:Chaucer.
The remainder of the artist's life is not outwardly eventful. In 1813 he formed, through the introduction of See also:George Cumber-See also:land of See also:Bristol, a valuable friendship with See also: Amongst the See also:group Blake seems to have found See also:special sympathy in the society of John See also:Varley, who, himself addicted to See also:astrology, encouraged Blake to cultivate his See also:gift of inspired vision; and it is probably to this influence that we are indebted for several curious drawings made from visions, especially the celebrated "See also:ghost of a See also:flea " and the very humorous portrait of the builder of the Pyramids. In 1821 Blake removed to See also:Fountain See also:Court; in the Strand, where he died on the 12th of See also:August 1827. The See also:chief work of these last years was the splendid series of engraved designs in illustration of the book of Job. Here we find the highest imaginative qualities of Blake's art See also:united to the technical means of expression which he best understood. Both the invention and the engraving are in all ways remarkable, and the series may fairly be cited in support of a very high estimate of his genius. None of his works is without the trace of that peculiar artistic See also:instinct and power which seizes the pictorial See also:element of ideas, simple or sublime, and translates them into the appropriate language of sense; but here the double faculty finds the happiest exercise. The grandeur of the theme is duly reflected in the simple and sublime images of the artist's design, and in the presence of these plates we are made to feel the power of the artist over the expressional resources of human form, as well as his sympathy with the imaginative significance of his subject.
A life of Blake, with selections from his works, by See also: In 1893 appeared The Works of William Blake, edited by E. J. See also:Ellis and W. B. Yeats. But for a See also:long time all the editors paid too little attention to a correct following of Blake's own See also:MSS. The text of the poems was finally edited with exemplary care and thoroughness by John See also:Sampson in his edition of the Poetical Works (1905), which has rescued Blake from the " improvements " of previous editors. See also The Letters of William Blake, together, with a Life by See also:Frederick Tatham; edited by A. G. B. See also:Russell (1906); and See also:Basil de Selincourt, William Blake (1909). (J. C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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