William Blake, the major poet, original thinker, printmaker, and prominent figure of the Romantic age. Blake received visions from a young age as well as having the bible engraved onto him, these became the main inspirations of his works. Other inspirations for his works were stories and scenes from other literary stories.
One of Blake’s more well known works was “The Ghost of a Flea” (c1819-20), came to Blake during a seance. The mood of this painting is very bleak and nightmarish
An image that Blake loved was and made multiple copies of. “The Ancient of Days” (1795) depicts Blake’s personal myth of an evil god bringing uniformity. A very symbolic and dark piece
“Newton” (1795-c1805) is about Blake’s distaste of science as he depicts Newton in an isolated cold space.without much life.
In “Satan” (c1789) Blake was experimenting with echoppe needles, a french engraving method. The piece itself is very fine tuned and captures a tortured spirit well.
Sources:
- https://www.biography.com/writer/william-blake
- https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/nov/21/the-10-best-works-by-william-blake
- http://www.blakearchive.org/work/biblicaltemperas
- https://www.tate.org.uk/search?aid=39&type=artwork