William Blake: Author, Artist and Printmaker

Title

William Blake: Author, Artist and Printmaker

Transcript

William Blake was born in London in 1757. Even from a young age he created works in multiple media, combining his interests in writing and drawing. He began work as an apprentice engraver at age 14, later attending the Royal Academy of Art. In 1782 Blake married Catherine Boucher, who would be an anchor for Blake ever afterwards and help him with his sales and printmaking. The same decade saw Blake’s deepening involvement with radical thinkers, the publication of his first book of poems, the opening of a print shop, and his first experiments with “illuminated printing” via relief etching. Blake would continue to develop and use this technique to combine text with imagery in the works for which he is now principally remembered.

Largely unrecognized in his own lifetime and always struggling to make ends meet, some of Blake’s works were based on commissions. But his passionate response to political, social, and religious constructs that he considered oppressive and misguided led to the formation of a personal mythology presented vividly in his illuminated books. Hand printed and colored, each copy is unique and exceptionally rare. It was only long after Blake’s death in 1827 that his reputation as a printmaker and artist began to grow along with his reputation as a writer, and the effort began to make his work more widely available through the production of facsimiles of the types seen in this exhibit.

Acknowledgements:

Grateful acknowledgement for their support of the Blake@Union project is made to Union College faculty, students, alumni, collection donors, and library staff. Additional thanks are extended to the following individuals for their particular contributions: James McCord, Andrew Burkett, and Sandra Wimer for sharing their knowledge of Blake; Jessica Rosenthal ’18 for her research into the Trianon Press facsimiles; Gail Golderman, Jennifer Goodwin, Rebecca Fried, and Matthew Golebiewski for website development and graphic design; Frances Maloy, India Spartz, Marlaine DesChamps, Julie Lohnes, and Sarah Mottalini for logistical support; Annette LeClair for project leadership.