English poet and artist William Blake: biography, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The great English poet, artist, philosopher William Blake created, referring only to future generations. He firmly knew that only descendants would be able to appreciate his works. And now, at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries, it will not find recognition among contemporaries. He turned out to be right: all the secrets of his genius have not been revealed so far.

Life path

William Blake, with all his dim external events, does not give much space to biographers. He was born in London in 1757 into a poor family of a shopkeeper, and lived there all his life until his death, until the age of seventy. The care and participation of relatives, the admiration of a very narrow circle of his admirers and students - this was William Blake received in full. For some time he studied the craft of an engraver and subsequently earned money from this. The daily life that William Blake led was full of routine and daily bread. He was engaged in the production of engravings from other people's originals, much less often - from his own. He created illustrations for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Book of Job. Here is one of the illustrationsDante "Whirlwind of Lovers".

This is a powerful and terrible flow that would not occur to a simple man in the street, to which the artist did not stoop. Therefore, when William Blake tried to establish himself as an artist, he faced a blank wall of misunderstanding. It was only twenty years after his death that he was "discovered" by the Pre-Raphaelites for the general public. The world and diverse creative heritage that William Blake left are not fully understood until now. His spiritual biography is complex and filled with bright events.

Poetry

One of the creative tasks that the poet solved throughout his life was the creation of a new mythological system, the so-called Bible of Hell. The most famous and perfect work of its kind is "Songs of Innocence and Experience". His poems are meaningless to consider each separately. They are interconnected by many subtle threads and acquire true sound only in the context of the entire cycle.

Inner Feelings

He had decades when he was silent for a long time. This shows his painful and intense spiritual quest. His contemporaries did not understand him, but perhaps that is why his work was focused on his inner vision. And it was macro- and microcosmogonic, bold, fantastic, with an unusual play of lines and a sharp composition. With this, William Blake, whose paintings were not accepted by his contemporaries, strikes us now. He took them from the world he knew or saw before. This is the same Blake who saw infinity in the palm of his hand andeternity in one hour. "Newton" is one of his most famous paintings.

In it, the physicist is represented by the Great Architect of the Universe with one of the Masonic symbols in his hands. William Blake anticipated Dali, who would claim to be the world's first artist in the field of quantum physics. No, Salvador Dali was late for a long time.

Albion's past

England is ruled by its mythological past, William Blake believed. The paintings are painted on the themes of the Celts and Druids, who had special knowledge and myths.

It is the memories of them, according to Blake, that can reveal previously hidden truths.

Bible illustrations

Creating illustrations for the Bible, he does not write shepherds or baby Jesus, but mystically sees Satan. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is one of his books, written in imitation of the biblical books of prophecy. This is what we see in his paintings. What William Blake painted, Red Dragon, is a series of watercolor paintings created to illustrate the Bible, the book of Revelation of John the Evangelist. This is a Big red dragon with seven heads and crowns on them. His tail swept away a third of the stars from heaven to earth. These paintings depict the dragon in various scenes.

The first painting "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in the Sun". It has been interpreted by various theologians as follows. The wife is the Church, the light of Christ, and the sun above her is sacred. In agony, she gives birth to a child that the dragon intends to devour. But she succeedsflee.

From fury, the dragon pours water, which should swallow both his wife and the earth.

He is incredibly scary and confident in his strength.

Some modern views on theology

You can look at these horrors differently. Christ Church was established as a place of Love and Mercy. There was no devil in the original teaching. His idea paradoxically developed and gained strength during the Middle Ages, like the idea of Hell to control the souls of the flock. On the one hand - Paradise - a gingerbread, on the other - Hell - a whip, to which the devil pushes a person. Thus the Devil gained extraordinary strength through the efforts of the Church. And now it is an exhibit close to the museum. Few people seriously think about it.

But that doesn't detract from Blake's work. They suggest thinking about what is Good and what is Evil. He was a prophet and foresaw many things, like his own death.

At six o'clock on the evening of his death, Blake felt her, promised his wife that he would always be with her, and died. So what was death for him?