William Blake was a renowned poet and print-maker from Britain. The London-born artist produced some of the greatest engravings of all time such as the Illustrations of the Book of Job. Here we bring to you interesting pieces of tidbits from the life of this famous artist. Blake recognized his calling since an early age and his parents were supportive of him. They sent Blake to Henry Pars’s Drawing School in London for formal training when William was only ten.
After drawing school, Blake apprenticed with James Basire, who taught him the ropes of engraving.
When he started out as a professional engraver, Blake would engrave copies of other artists work but eventually he progressed to developing his own designs.
While he spent most of his life in obscurity, Blake's engravings are now considered as prized possessions and are valued in millions. Not many know but Blake was also a mystic who experienced visions on several occasions. He once envisioned God “put his head to the window” and in another of his visions he saw his deceased brother’s “released spirit ascend heavenward through the matter-of-fact ceiling, ‘clapping its hands for joy.’”
In the segment below we bring to you inspirational quotes by the famous artist and poet William Blake.
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
William Blake
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.
William Blake
Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
William Blake
What is now proved was once only imagined.
William Blake
The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.
William Blake
I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
