Only a century later, the British poet and artist William Blake was able to win the title of outstanding master of English art. During the life of the painter, philosopher and writer, contemporaries treated him with great distrust.
Contemporaries attributed William Blake to the madmen. During his lifetime, the master did not receive recognition. But now he is called among the most important figures in the history of art. The era of romanticism.
The path to art
Critics noted the amazing depth, mysticism, philosophical component of his works, characterized as preromantic. Literary works contain elements of psychoanalysis, which became popular only at the beginning of the last century.
The inspiration for the painter was the Bible. However, the author became the creator of his own mythology, which combined the principles of Enlightenment and religious dogmas.
The biography of the future leader began in 1757. The child was born on August 12 in London in a wealthy family. Father sold fabrics, mother raised 5 children. Parents did not restrict the freedom of descendants. Therefore, painting the son was not called useless. William began with reproductions of great painters acquired especially for him.
With ten years, Blake studied at an art school. He got a job in a workshop for an engraver, learning how to apply drawing on hard surfaces. Adherence to the Gothic trend in it arose under the impression of sketches in Westminster Abbey.
In 1778, William continued his education at the Royal Academy of Arts. He did not accept the eclecticism offered to the students, choosing the style of the High Renaissance. Blake did not stay in the walls of the school. He began making prints. In 1784, together with his brother Robert and James Parker, the future painter opened a printing house to issue illustrations for books.
Realization of Visions
The canvases of the artist demonstrate his commitment to fantastic symbolism. To decode the messages hidden in the canvases, viewers should learn about the time in which the master worked, as much as possible. Familiarity with the Holy Scriptures is also necessary.
According to legend, William in childhood saw angels in a tree, he heard mysterious voices. They pushed Blake to the idea of creating an illuminated print, where poems accompanied the image. The canvases of the great master are distinguished by the isolation of places, forms and volumes. At the same time, they are graphic, and the usual canons of composition in them are violated. A striking example is the picture "Revelations of St. John the Evangelist."
After reading the colorful narrative of the sacred number, the horsemen of the Apocalypse and the second coming, the painter immortalized everything on canvas. In 1805 and 1810 he created his own versions of "The Great Red Dragon and the Wife Dressed in the Sun." Both are kept in museums. One painting was acquired by the Washington National Gallery; another was bought by the Brooklyn Museum.
Work on "The Dream of Jacob" was accompanied by the light of other worlds. A striking subtlety and monochrome characterize his painting "Angels Guard Christ in the Tomb" 1805. The artist painted her in ink and watercolor. In the tempera technique, the canvas "Adam Gives Names to Animals" is written on a blackboard.
Literature
The great architect or Urizen called Blake the highest power. An engraving of the same name became an illustration for the book "Europe: Prophecy." The carrier of uniformity measures everything with a compass, striving for the unification of mankind.
Psychoanalysts saw the abandonment of spatial vision in the Hekata painting, and art critics discovered a violation of the canons of painting. The goddess appears in the form of three figures, and not one. Secret signs are located on the entire canvas. This is an owl, a symbol of evil and wisdom, and snakes, the keeper of knowledge, and even Hekate herself, who looks into the tempter's eyes.
Blake’s literary heritage does not fit into accepted standards. However, despite the apparent neglect of English philology, for two centuries, fans of romanticism have called these verses and prose collections of quotes. Especially colorful lines have long turned into aphorisms.
The debut collection "Poetic Drafts" was released in 1783. After it were more optimistic "Songs of Innocence", the bitter "Songs of Experience". For both books, the artist himself painted illustrations. The works are collected in a single volume, where each poem contrasted with another in spirit and even in name. The answer to Joe Milton was the work "The Marriage of Paradise and Hell." A watercolor cycle of works was released to her. According to the writer, a model example of orderliness and rationalism is paradise. Evil is a force that can change the world. But they are not conceivable separately. Only in their unity is the integrity of a spiritual person born.
