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William Blake , artist
British, 1757 - 1827
illustration for p. 49 in the book, The Complaint, and the Consolation; or Night Thoughtsä (London: R. Edwards, 1797), circa 1797
engraving
42.2 x 33.1 x 1.9 cm (object)

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author, Edward Young

Artist Credit: all

Artist Biography: Engraver, etcher, lithographer, watercolorist, visionary poet. The son of a clothier, Blake demonstrated a marked artistic bent at a very young age, and at ten was sent to begin his studies at the Paris Academy in the Strand. At fourteen he was apprenticed to the fashionable engraver, Ryland, but spent the years 1771-1778 apprenticed to James Basire. Basire often sent Blake to copy the funerary sculptures of Westminster Abbey and the old churches of London - and it may be that the long hours spent in dimness and isolation greatly (and perhaps morbidly) enhanced his innate sympathy with the supernatural. On the termination of the seven-year apprenticeship, Blake studied for a short time at the newly-established Royal Academy. With the exeption of his brief period of study in Paris, Blake never went abroad, and had no contact with artistic life save that of Georgian London. He drew his inspiration from the most mystical of texts, including the Bible, Dante, Milton, and Ossian. The strangeness of his work has always made it difficult to clearly situate Blake in the history of art.

Related Keywords
1797 Edwards R London Thoughts* Night or Consolation and Complaint book the in 49 p for illustration Europe England Print engraving William Blake British Edward Young 5144163107060012 A103168 AFGA