Blake, William

Blake, William
(1757–1827)
   Artist and Poet.
   Blake was trained in London as an engraver. He was the author of a series of volumes of poetry, all of which were illustrated by himself. These included the Songs of Innocence, the Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the Songs of Experience, Milton and Jerusalem. He also produced individual plates such as ‘Elohim creating Adam’ and a series of illustrations for the Book of Job. His work was not popular in his lifetime, but interest has increased since the end of the nineteenth century. Blake himself held unconventional religious views. He preached a gospel of extreme individualism and he was bitterly opposed to the moralism and rationalism of his own age, declaring, ‘I must create a system or be enslav’d by another man’s’. In England he is chiefly remembered for his poem ‘Jerusalem’ which is taken from Milton. With its notion of rebuilding Jerusalem ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’, it has become an unofficial national anthem.
   William Blake, Poems, edited by W.H. Stevenson (1989);
   P. Ackroyd, Blake (1995);
   J.G. Davies, The Theology of William Blake (1948);
   R. Lister, William Blake: An Introduction to the Man and his Works (1968).

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  • BLAKE, WILLIAM° — (1757–1827), English poet and engraver. One of the great figures of the English romantic movement, Blake described his poems as prophecies, declaring that his model was the Bible, which he termed the great code of art. The works of Homer and Ovid …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Blake,William — Blake, William. 1757 1827. British poet and artist whose paintings and poetic works, such as Songs of Innocence (1789) and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (c. 1790), have a mystical, visionary quality. * * * …   Universalium

  • Blake, William — born Nov. 28, 1757, London, Eng. died Aug. 12, 1827, London English poet, painter, engraver, and visionary. Though he did not attend school, he was trained as an engraver at the Royal Academy and opened a print shop in London in 1784. He… …   Universalium

  • Blake, William — (1757 1827)    A British poet, painter, and printmaker who from childhood onwards experienced * dreams and *visions depicting *apparitions and metaphysical scenes. At the age of4, he claimed to have seen the face of God put his head to the window …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

  • Blake, William — (1757 1827)    London born poet, painter and engraver who had a childhood vision of angels and the prophet Ezekiel. It was possibly this early experience that led him in later life to join the Swedenborgian New Church. He wrote and illuminated… …   British and Irish poets

  • Blake, William — (1757 1827)    Poet and painter, b. in London, was from earliest youth a seer of visions and a dreamer of dreams, seeing Ezekiel sitting under a green bough, and a tree full of angels at Peckham, and such he remained to the end of his days. His… …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • Blake, William Hume — (1809 1870)    Born in Ireland. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and emigrated to Canada in his youth. During the Rebellion in 1837, paymaster of the Royal Foresters. Called to the bar of Upper Canada, 1838. A member of the Legislative… …   The makers of Canada

  • Blake, William — (11/28/1757 London 8/12/1827 London) (England)    Painter, printmaker, poet, and mystic. A major figure in the art of the 18th and 19th century. Much of his work consisted of visionary religious images. Most famous for illustrating the works of… …   Dictionary of erotic artists: painters, sculptors, printmakers, graphic designers and illustrators

  • Blake, William — ► (1757 1827) Pintor, grabador y poeta británico. Es uno de los poetas más representativos del prerromanticismo. Obras: Cantos de inocencia (1789) y Cantos de experiencia (1794). * * * (28 nov. 1757, Londres, Inglaterra–12 ago. 1827, Londres).… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • BLAKE, WILLIAM —    poet, painter, and engraver, born in London, where, with rare intervals, he spent his life a mystic from his very boyhood; apprenticed to an engraver, whom he assisted with his drawings; started on original lines of his own as illustrator of… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

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