William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

Most of Blake’s works have very unusual stories behind them which is one of the reasons he got rejected by the society during his lifetime. For example, in this piece called “The House of Death”, he illustrates lines from Book XI of John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost. The Archangel Michael shows Adam the misery that will be inflicted on Man now he has eaten the Forbidden Fruit. In a vision of ‘Death’s ‘grim Cave’ Adam sees a ‘monstrous crew’ of men afflicted by ‘Diseases dire’.

I, personally, really like this kind of paintings because they make me see a different perspective on famous stories and the world around me. Here are a few more examples of William Blake’s eye-opening work.

Sources:

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-blake

https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Blake