Uwe loesch biography of william blake

His poem Jerusalem, written as the preface for Milton's A Poem, was set to music during the First World War and has been adopted as an alternative national anthem. Their collaboration was a true partnership, with Catherine helping to print and color the illustrations. In Blake published a book of poems called Songs of Experience.

A Biography of William Blake - Local Histories

While he was admired by some of his contemporaries, such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, he was also dismissed by others as a madman or a charlatan. In Blake was commissioned to illustrate Divine Comedy by Dante but he died before he could complete the task. William Blake died on 12 August Next post. Poet, artist and mystic William Blake was one of England's most original thinkers.

Many of his works are filled with images that have multiple meanings and can be interpreted in different ways. Marriage and Family Life. His vision of civilisation as inevitably chaotic and contradictory mirrors the political turmoil of his era. The Book of Urizen was also published in World War One Centenary. William Blake was a man of strong political views and activism.

For Blake, the true purpose of art was to help us glimpse these hidden dimensions of reality and to awaken us to the deeper mysteries of existence. He and his wife Catherine had 6 children. He was raised in a devout Christian family and was deeply influenced by the teachings of the Bible. He also faced competition from other engravers who were willing to work for lower wages.

Apart from three years residing near Bognor Regis, he would spend his life in London, as Blake himself would note in his hymn to the capital, "near where the charter'd Thames does flow". During his long career as an artist and engraver he created magnificent illustrations for editions of Dante and John Milton , and all of his own works were self-illustrated, full of invented mythological characters and rich proverbial statements.

Uwe loesch biography of william blake: The cumulative files range

However, his legacy has endured, and his works continue to inspire and captivate audiences today. Blake's early ambitions lay not with poetry but with painting and at the age of 14, after attending drawing school, he was apprenticed to James Basire, engraver. He was born in Soho, London, where he lived most of his life, and was son to a hosier and his wife, both Dissenters.

William served 7 years and became an engraver himself in His unique style and subject matter set him apart from his contemporaries and continue to captivate audiences today. Also in , Blake published America, a Prophecy. The preface included the famous poem now known as Jerusalem, which was written in Blake also had a long-standing friendship with the painter Henry Fuseli, who shared his interest in mythology and the supernatural.

In he published a book of poems called The Song of Innocence. He saw the destruction of the environment as a sin against God, and believed that it was the duty of individuals to protect and preserve the natural world. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. He was forced to rely on the generosity of friends and family members to make ends meet.