William Blake
William Blake was born on the 28th of November 1757 at 28 Broad Street in Soho, London. He was the third of seven children, and two died in infancy. His father James worked as a hosier while his mother Catherine educated him at home after he left school at age ten. The Bible served as an early influence that remained with him throughout life. Blake claimed to have seen God press his face against a window when he was very young. At eight or ten years old he reported seeing angels among haystacks near Peckham Rye. One story describes how he saw a tree filled with bright angelic wings like stars. His mother intervened to save him from punishment by his father for telling such tales.
On the 4th of August 1772 Blake began a seven-year apprenticeship under engraver James Basire for fifty-two pounds and ten shillings. Basire sent him to Westminster Abbey to copy Gothic monuments where faded brightness and colour left clear traces on his style. Boys from Westminster School sometimes teased him until Blake knocked one off a scaffold during an afternoon sketching session. In October 1779 Blake enrolled at the Royal Academy in Old Somerset House without paying fees but supplying his own materials. He rebelled against Sir Joshua Reynolds who championed fashionable painters like Rubens. Reynolds wrote about generalizing truth while Blake marked in his personal copy that to generalize is to be an idiot. Blake preferred Classical precision found in works by Michelangelo and Raphael over Reynolds' oil painting techniques.
In 1788 Blake developed relief etching which he called illuminated printing to produce books more quickly than standard methods allowed. The process involved writing poem text directly onto copper plates using acid-resistant medium before etching away untreated areas. Illustrations appeared alongside words much like earlier illuminated manuscripts did. Pages printed from these plates were hand-coloured in watercolours then stitched together into volumes. This technique produced Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Book of Thel, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and Jerusalem. Blake also used intaglio engraving for commercial work such as Europe Supported by Africa and America. A 2009 study noted he frequently employed repoussage to hammer out mistakes on plates. Such traditional engraving techniques took months or years compared to his faster fluid line method.
Blake moved to a cottage at Felpham in Sussex during 1800 to illustrate William Hayley's minor poetry. He began working on Milton with a title page dated 1804 though continuing until 1808. In August 1803 he faced charges after an altercation with soldier John Schofield who claimed Blake shouted damn the king while soldiers were slaves. The Chichester assizes cleared him because evidence seemed invented according to local reports. Blake later depicted Schofield wearing mind forged manacles in illustrations for Jerusalem. His disenchantment with Hayley influenced writings where corporeal friends become spiritual enemies. After returning to London in 1804 he set up exhibitions selling none of his temperas despite hosting shows at his brother's shop.
In 1826 Blake received a commission through friend John Linnell to illustrate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Only seven engravings reached proof form before his death cut short the enterprise. Some watercolours survived but many remained unfinished. Blake noted margins stating everything in Dantes Comedia shows tyrannical purposes making this world foundation rather than Holy Ghost. He shared Dante's distrust of materialism yet dissented from punishments allotted in Hell. Even near death Blake spent one shilling on a pencil to continue sketching Inferno scenes. His illustrations seem to critically revise spiritual aspects of text rather than merely accompany it. A female lodger reported seeing angels during his final hours while he sang hymns beside Catherine.
William married Catherine Boucher on the 18th of August 1782 in St Mary's Church, Battersea after she responded affirmatively when asked if she pitied him. She signed her wedding contract with an X since she was illiterate. Catherine mixed and applied paint colours for most illuminated books including Europe: A Prophecy cover. One biographer wrote that poet and wife did everything except manufacturing paper or ink themselves. They taught each other writing skills while she helped colour printed poems throughout their marriage. After Blake died she continued selling works without consulting Mr Blake first despite believing spirits visited regularly. On her death day in October 1831 she called out as if he were nearby saying she would join him soon.
Blake sold fewer than thirty copies of Songs of Innocence and of Experience before dying on the 12th of August 1827. His body lay buried five days later at Bunhill Fields where parents rested nearby. Catherine moved into Frederick Tatham's house as housekeeper then burned manuscripts deemed heretical under church influence. William Michael Rossetti also destroyed works considered lacking quality while John Linnell erased sexual imagery from drawings. Alexander Gilchrist began work on a biography during the 1860s transforming reputation rapidly among Pre-Raphaelites like Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Algernon Charles Swinburne published books drawing attention to motifs praising sacred natural love free from jealousy. By twentieth century scholars S Foster Damon Geoffrey Keynes Northrop Frye David Erdman enhanced standing significantly.
William Butler Yeats edited collected works in 1893 while British surrealist artists Paul Nash Graham Sutherland drew on visionary practices. Benjamin Britten Ralph Vaughan Williams set poems to music including The Lamb composed in 1982 by John Tavener. Allen Ginsberg Bob Dylan Jim Morrison Bruce Dickinson cited Blake frequently within counterculture movements. Philip Pullman rooted fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials partly in Marriage of Heaven and Hell world. Edward Larrissy asserted Blake exerted most powerful influence on twentieth-century Romantic writers after World War II. Exhibitions included Tate Britain shows in 2007-2008 alongside Fitzwilliam Museum runs between February and May 2024. A permanent memorial slab unveiled at grave site on the 12th of August 2018 following fourteen years investigation by Portuguese couple Carol Luís Garrido.
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Common questions
When and where was William Blake born?
William Blake was born on the 28th of November 1757 at 28 Broad Street in Soho, London. He was the third of seven children and two died in infancy.
What artistic techniques did William Blake develop for his books?
In 1788 William Blake developed relief etching which he called illuminated printing to produce books more quickly than standard methods allowed. The process involved writing poem text directly onto copper plates using acid-resistant medium before etching away untreated areas.
Why did William Blake face legal charges in August 1803?
In August 1803 William Blake faced charges after an altercation with soldier John Schofield who claimed Blake shouted damn the king while soldiers were slaves. The Chichester assizes cleared him because evidence seemed invented according to local reports.
Who was William Blake married to and what role did she play in his work?
William Blake married Catherine Boucher on the 18th of August 1782 in St Mary's Church, Battersea. She mixed and applied paint colours for most illuminated books including Europe: A Prophecy cover.
When did William Blake die and how many copies of Songs of Innocence and of Experience did he sell?
William Blake died on the 12th of August 1827 and sold fewer than thirty copies of Songs of Innocence and of Experience before dying. His body lay buried five days later at Bunhill Fields where parents rested nearby.
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72 references cited across the entry
- 1webBlake & LondonThe Blake Society — 28 March 2008
- 3webWilliam Blake as a Revolutionary PoetWilson, Andy — 2021
- 4webAn Introduction to William BlakeKazin, Alfred — 1997
- 7journal"an excellent saleswoman": The last Years of catherine BlakeAngus Whitehead — 2011
- 9webWilliam BlakeAcademy of American Poets — 3 April 1999
- 10bookWilliam Blake, Collected PoemsW.B. Yeats — Routledge — 2002
- 11bookWorld of Art: William BlakeKathleen Raine — Thames & Hudson — 1970
- 12bookThe Life of William BlakeMona Wilson — Granada Publishing Limited — 1978
- 13bookThe Longman Anthology of British Literature: Volume 2A: The Romantics and Their ContemporariesPearson Education, Inc. — 2006
- 14journalMetaphor in William Blake: A Negative ViewMatthew Corrigan — 1969
- 16bookJerusalem!: The Real Life of William BlakeTobias Churton — Watkins Media — 16 April 2015
- 17bookThe Complete Poetry and Prose of William BlakeErdman, David V — Knopf Doubleday Publishing — 1982
- 20newsHow William Blake's wife brought colour to his works of geniusVanessa Thorpe et al. — 7 September 2019
- 24webBlake Hercules Road
- 25webWilliam Blake
- 26newsPutting Blake back on Lambeth's streets9 June 2009
- 27bookSlavery and the Culture of TasteSimon Gikandi — Princeton University Press — 2011
- 28bookBlake: Prophet Against EmpireDavid V. Erdman — Princeton University Press — 2013
- 29bookBlake and TraditionKathleen Raine — Routledge — 2002
- 32journalThe Din of the City in Blake's Prophetic BooksStuart Peterfreund — The Johns Hopkins University Press — Spring 1997
- 33webBLAKE, WILLIAM (1757–1827) & LINNELL, JOHN (1792–1882)English Heritage
- 34newsBurial ground of Bunyan, Defoe and Blake earns protected statusMaev Kennedy — 22 February 2011
- 35journalA Mosaic Marvel on Lambeth's StreetsPeter Davies — December 2018
- 36webHow amateur sleuths finally tracked down the burial place of William Blake11 August 2018
- 37newsWilliam Blake's final stop on the road to Jerusalem is recognised at lastDominic Kennedy — 23 July 2018
- 39webWilliam Blake's LondonTate UK
- 40newsThe Radical Sex and Spiritual Life of William Blake29 November 2015
- 41bookWilliam Blake: Visionary AnarchistPeter Marshall — Freedom Press — 1 January 1994
- 42webEurope a Prophecy, copy D, object 1 (Bentley 1, Erdman i, Keynes i) "Europe a Prophecy"William Blake Archive
- 43bookA Blake DictionarySamuel Foster Damon — Brown University Press — 1988
- 44bookWilliam Blake: The Critical HeritageGerald Eades Bentley Blake — Routledge & K. Paul — 1975
- 45magazineWilliam Blake: Visions and VersesNational Endowment for the Humanities — 2004
- 46bookBlakePeter Ackroyd — Sinclair-Stevenson — 1995
- 47bookWilliam Blake, PrintmakerRobert N. Essick — Princeton University Press — 1980
- 48bookBlake's Human Form DivineAnne Mellor — University of California Press — 1974
- 49webH-Women – H-Net
- 50webWilliam Blake17 November 2017
- 51bookOn the Minor Prophecies of William BlakeEmily Hamblen — Kessinger Publishing — 1995
- 53bookMemoirs of the Life and Writings of William Haley, ESQ Vol IIJohn Johnson — S. and R. Bentley, Dorset-Street — 1823
- 54webBlake's vision on showJohn Ezard — 6 July 2004
- 55bookA Short Biographical Dictionary of English literatureJohn William Cousin — Plain Label Books — 1933
- 58webLetter to Nanavutty, 11 Nov 1948, quoted by Hiles, David. Jung, William Blake and our answer to Job 2001.De Montfort University
- 59newsRichard Ashcroft - Mean Magazine featureJay Babcock — 17 May 2000
- 62newsThe Pop LifeRobert Palmer — 20 March 1985
- 63journalWilliam Bolcom, Songs of Innocence and ExperienceJackie Di Salvo — Spring 1988
- 64newsBOLCOM: Songs of Innocence and of ExperienceGary Hoffman — January 2005
- 65webWilliam Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy2026-04-12
- 69webEvil Renderings of a Distempered Mind – November 10, 2016 – SF Weekly10 November 2016
- 71webAshmolean Museum
- 73webMorgan Library William Blake Exhibition19 August 2013
- 77webWilliam Blake