William Blake

A major figure of the Romantic Movement, the British artist William Blake (1757-1827) was at once a painter, designer, engraver and poet. He devoted himself to the illustration of his literary works, and his texts developed following the lines of his engravings and fantastic drawings, becoming veritable illuminated manuscripts. Inspired by biblical and prophetical themes (Proverbs of Hell, The Everlasting Gospel and The Gates of Paradise), Blakes art subtly combines the modernity of his time and of the Romantic Revolution with the classicism of the themes that he explored. Gifted with unequalled imagination and originality, the artist played with the diversity of his media in order to better externalise the demons that haunted him, as well as to plunge the viewer or reader into a profound melancholy. In this monograph, Osbert Burdett sheds light on the art and life of this extraordinary artist.