The Life of William BlakeCourier Dover Publications, 2017 M05 9 - 640 pages One of the greatest Victorian-era biographies, Alexander Gilchrist's The Life of William Blake plays a key role in the history of Blake's work and its influence on other writers and artists. The first standard text on Blake and a cornerstone of the extensive scholarship on his life and work, it not only delivered its subject from unjust obscurity but also dispelled the notion of Blake's insanity and established his genius as a visionary artist and poet. Sensitive, highly readable accounts trace Blake's childhood and years as an engraver's apprentice, his relations with patrons and employers, his trial for treason, and his declining health and untimely death. The author's wide-ranging research includes interviews with many of Blake's surviving friends, whose personal recollections add warmth and immediacy to this portrait. Extensive quotes from the subject's poetry and prose — practically unknown at the time of the original 1863 publication — further enliven the text. In addition to a critical commentary on Blake's boyhood poems, this transformative biography features more than 40 of his illustrations. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 80
Page 12
... thing, a heavy premium to some leading artist for instruction under his own roof, then the only attainable, always the only adequate training. The investment, moreover, would not after all be certain of assuring daily bread for the ...
... thing, a heavy premium to some leading artist for instruction under his own roof, then the only attainable, always the only adequate training. The investment, moreover, would not after all be certain of assuring daily bread for the ...
Page 16
... things. To savant and to artist alike, while yet on earth, the Heavens were opened. By Swedenborg's theologic writings, the first English editions of some of which appeared during Blake's manhood, the latter was considerably influenced ...
... things. To savant and to artist alike, while yet on earth, the Heavens were opened. By Swedenborg's theologic writings, the first English editions of some of which appeared during Blake's manhood, the latter was considerably influenced ...
Page 17
... thing, if no other, as the largest ever engraved up to that time on one plate —copper, let us remember-being some 47 inches by 27; and paper had to be made on purpose for it. “Two years passed over smoothly enough,” writes Malkin, “till ...
... thing, if no other, as the largest ever engraved up to that time on one plate —copper, let us remember-being some 47 inches by 27; and paper had to be made on purpose for it. “Two years passed over smoothly enough,” writes Malkin, “till ...
Page 18
... things our Pugins and Scotts had to learn near a century later. “The heads he considered as portraits,"—not unnaturally, their sculptors showing no overt sign of idiocy;-“and all the ornaments appeared as miracles of art to his ...
... things our Pugins and Scotts had to learn near a century later. “The heads he considered as portraits,"—not unnaturally, their sculptors showing no overt sign of idiocy;-“and all the ornaments appeared as miracles of art to his ...
Page 26
... things otherwise inarticulate, the unity of sentiment, the singular truth with which the keynote is struck and sustained, or the eloquent, broken music of its rhythm. The “marvellous Boy” that “perished in his pride,” (1770) while ...
... things otherwise inarticulate, the unity of sentiment, the singular truth with which the keynote is struck and sustained, or the eloquent, broken music of its rhythm. The “marvellous Boy” that “perished in his pride,” (1770) while ...
Contents
5 | |
12 | |
24 | |
27 | |
INTRODUCTION TO THE POLITE WoRLD 178284 AET 2527 | 44 |
CHAPTER VII | 52 |
NOTES ON LAVATER 1788 AET 3031 | 62 |
CHAPTER IX | 70 |
A KEEN EMPLOYER 18057 AET 4850 | 219 |
THE DESIGNS To BLAIR 18048 AET 4751 | 238 |
CHAPTER XXV | 255 |
YEARS OF DEEPENING NEGLECT 181017 AET 5360 | 263 |
CHAPTER XXVIII | 270 |
NOTES ON REYNOLDS I | 276 |
CHAPTER XXXI | 294 |
INventions to THE Book of Job | 301 |
BookSELLER JOHNSONs 179192 AET 3435 | 92 |
CHAPTER XIII | 118 |
AT WORK FOR THE PUBLISHERs 179599 AET 3842 | 137 |
PoET HAYLEY AND FELPHAM 18001 AET 4344 | 158 |
AET 6870 3 II | 165 |
TRIAL FOR HIGH TREASON 18034 AET 4647 | 192 |
CHAPTER XXI | 205 |
MAD OR NOT MAD 2 | 337 |
CHAPTER XXXVI | 351 |
CHAPTER XXXVIII | 383 |
SUPPLEMENTARY | 388 |
THE COLOUR PRINTS | 404 |
ANNOTATED LIST OF BLAKEs PAINTINGS DRAWINGS | 415 |
INDEX | 527 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adam and Eve admiration Albion Allan Cunningham angels appears artist Ballads beauty Butts called Capt character Chaucer Christ clouds colour composition copy cottage Cowper Cromek Dante dark death delight drawing edition engraved eternal executed Exhibition expression eyes favourite Felpham figure finished flames Flaxman fresco frontispiece Fuseli genius grace grand Grave guineas hand Hayley Hayley's head heaven illustrations imagination Indian ink Jerusalem John Varley labour Last Judgment letter light Linnell living London look Milton mind natural never Oothoon original Ozias Humphrey painted painter perhaps picture plates poem poet poetic poetry portrait printed published quarto Reynolds Satan seen serpent sketch Songs of Experience Songs of Innocence soul South Molton spirit Stothard Street style sweet tell Tempera Theotormon things thou thought tion Varley verse vision visionary volume water-colour wife WILLIAM BLAKE writes young