William blake brief biography sample
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William Blake
William Blake was born in London on November 28, , to James, a hosier, and Catherine Blake. Two of his six siblings died in infancy. From early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions—at four he saw God “put his head to the window”; around age nine, while walking through the countryside, he saw a tree filled with angels. Although his parents tried to discourage him from “lying,” they did observe that he was different from his peers and did not force him to attend a conventional school. Instead, he learned to read and write at home. At age ten, Blake expressed a wish to become a painter; so, his parents sent him to drawing school. Two years later, Blake began writing poetry. When he turned fourteen, he apprenticed with an engraver because art school proved too costly. One of Blake’s assignments as apprentice was to sketch the tombs at Westminster Abbey, exposing him to a variety of Gothic styles from which he would draw inspiration throughout his career. After his
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Biography of William Blake, English Poet and Artist
William Blake (November 28, –August 12, ) was an English poet, engraver, printmaker, and painter. He fryst vatten mostly known for his lyric poems Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, which combine simple language with complex subject matters, and for his epic poems, Milton and Jerusalem, that contrasted the canon of classical epic.
Fast Facts: William Blake
- Known For: Poet and engraver known for his seemingly simple poems containing complex themes and their companion illustrations and prints. As an artist, he fryst vatten known for devising an innovative technique for colored engravings called illuminated printing.
- Born: November 28, in Soho, London, England
- Parents: James Blake, Catherine Wright
- Died: August 12, in London, England
- Education: Largely homeschooled, apprenticed with engraver James Basire
- Selected Works: Songs of Innocence and of Experience (), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (), Jerusalem
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William Blake (–), one of the greatest poets in the English language, also ranks among the most original visual artists of the Romantic era. Born in London in into a working-class family with strong nonconformist religious beliefs, Blake first studied art as a boy, at the drawing academy of Henry Pars. He served a five-year apprenticeship with the commercial engraver James Basire before entering the Royal Academy Schools as an engraver at the age of twenty-two. This conventional training was tempered by private study of medieval and Renaissance art; as revealed by his early designs for Edward Young’s Night Thoughts (Nature revolves, but Man advances), Blake sought to emulate the example of artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Dürer in producing timeless, “Gothic” art, infused with Christian spirituality and created with poetic genius.
In , Blake married Catherine Boucher (–), an impoverished grocer’s daughter who would become his studio assistant. Blake now threw his en