William Blake

1757 - 1827

A poet, painter, printmaker and mystic, Blake was one of the greatest and most influential figures of the Romantic period. He lived in London his whole life, except for three years spent in Felpham, Sussex, to work for his new patron, William Hayley, who was a minor poet. Blake's wife, Catherine Boucher, was his major collaborator, printing and colouring many of his works. Some of his best-known literary works, such as 'Milton', from which the anthem 'Jerusalem' was derived, have entered the canon of English culture. Although revered by a close coterie of artists, he was largely unrecognised by the wider public in his lifetime, or considered an "unfortunate lunatic" because of his religious and social beliefs. Indeed, he was posthumously recruited in support of a number of causes, in part because of his advocacy of free love. However, his reputation grew after his death and was in particular bolstered by the Pre-Raphaelites and their successors, and then again by artists in the early decades of the 20th century.

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