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
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Page vi
... whole mass of manuscript in her possession on the ground of “religious scruples.” Thus may have perished the Book of Oothoon, the Book of Moonlight, and many other treasures. Dr. Garnett, in his monograph on Blake (Portfolio, 1895) ...
... whole mass of manuscript in her possession on the ground of “religious scruples.” Thus may have perished the Book of Oothoon, the Book of Moonlight, and many other treasures. Dr. Garnett, in his monograph on Blake (Portfolio, 1895) ...
Page viii
... whole life-work of Blake the painter. But let him, adroitly avoiding the enthusiast, return alone to the pictures. Let him stand for a while before the “Infant Christ riding on a Lamb”—a radiant dream of childhood which as complete ...
... whole life-work of Blake the painter. But let him, adroitly avoiding the enthusiast, return alone to the pictures. Let him stand for a while before the “Infant Christ riding on a Lamb”—a radiant dream of childhood which as complete ...
Page 3
... whole. And Blake in some aspects of his art never emerged from infancy. His Drawing, often correct, almost always powerful, the pose and grouping of his figures often expressive and sublime, as the sketches of Raffaelle or Albert Dürer ...
... whole. And Blake in some aspects of his art never emerged from infancy. His Drawing, often correct, almost always powerful, the pose and grouping of his figures often expressive and sublime, as the sketches of Raffaelle or Albert Dürer ...
Page 20
... whole monument and a separate one of the effigy, accompanies it. In Part I. (1786) are similar “Portraits” of Queen Philippa, of Edward III., &c. From Basire, Blake could only acquire the mechanical part of Art, even of the engraver's ...
... whole monument and a separate one of the effigy, accompanies it. In Part I. (1786) are similar “Portraits” of Queen Philippa, of Edward III., &c. From Basire, Blake could only acquire the mechanical part of Art, even of the engraver's ...
Page 32
... whole composition is clear and decisive. One extrinsic circumstance materially detracts from the appearance of this and other water-colour drawings from his hand of the period: viz. that, as a substitute for glass, they were all ...
... whole composition is clear and decisive. One extrinsic circumstance materially detracts from the appearance of this and other water-colour drawings from his hand of the period: viz. that, as a substitute for glass, they were all ...
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 |
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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