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| William Blake |
| 1757-1827 |
| European Artist |
| Blake was born near Golden Square, Soho, in London, England. He entered Henry Pars' drawing school at the age of ten, was writing poetry by the age of twelve, and by the time he was twenty had produced some of the finest lyrical poetry in the English language. In 1779, Blake was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools as an engraver, and he first exhibited there in 1780 a painting of an historical subject. Poet, painter, engraver and visionary thinker, Blake stands out as a complete exception among his contemporaries. He is hugely admired today for his bright visionary watercolors and for his illuminated books, which use relief etching to combine text and illustration in a unique way. An admirer of Durer, Michelangelo and Raphael and a friend of Fuseli, Blake were extremely eccentric. He walked the streets in a Phrygian bonnet. His work, still obscure, whose radicalism lies in its visual Symbolism, a precursor of the Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolists. |
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