Purchase (1964) and gift (T. E. Hanley)
Open for research. A minimum of twenty-four hours is required to pull art materials to the Reading Room.
Alice Egan, 1997, and Helen Young, 2001
William Blake, born November 28, 1757, in London, was a poet, engraver, and painter. He was first educated at home, and in 1767 was sent to Henry Pars' drawing school in London, where for four years he drew copies of plaster casts of ancient sculptures. This was followed by an apprenticeship as an engraver with James Basire, an engraver to the London Society of Antiquaries. During his apprenticeship, Blake was sent to make drawings of monuments and tombs in Westminster, where he acquired a taste for Gothic art. In 1779, Blake began studies as an engraving student at the Royal Academy, where he associated with the sculptor John Flaxman and the painters Thomas Stothard and Henri Fuseli. Blake painted from his imagination, which was stimulated from an early age by visions of angels, monks, and various historical figures.
In 1782, Blake married Catherine Boucher. He taught her to draw and paint and she became his assistant. With his wife and younger brother Robert, Blake opened a print shop in 1784. In 1787 Robert Blake died, and afterwards William Blake had a vision in which his brother revealed to him a new technique of relief etching by which text and illustration could be printed from one plate. The following year Blake used his new technique as he began work on
In 1791, Blake moved to Lambeth where he started work on the
Blake started receiving some commissions during this time: from Richard Edwards in 1796 to illustrate Edward Young's
In May 1809, Blake held a one-man exhibition in his brother James' hosiery shop, but the exhibit attracted little attention. In the following years Blake became relatively obscure, and received just enough engraving work to barely support himself and his wife, but he did continue with his own work.
Blake began to develop a following in the 1820s after obtaining the support of the painter John Linnell. Linnell commissioned a series of watercolor designs to be published as engravings from Dante's
Gilchrist, A.
Keynes, G.
The collection chiefly comprises works by William Blake; there is also one portrait of Blake. The collection is organized into three Series: I. Original Works by William Blake, II. Reproductive Prints, and III. Portrait by Frederick Tatham.
Blake's original works consist of six drawings and fifteen prints. The drawings include a design for the frontispiece to the
The Ransom Center holds additional Blake materials in its Library, including a volume of