William Blake
William Blake
William Blakewas an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic works have been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 November 1757
I turn my eyes to the schools & universities of Europe And there behold the loom of Locke whose woof rages dire, Washed by the water-wheels of Newton. Black the cloth In heavy wreaths folds over every nation; cruel works Of many wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic Moving by compulsion each other: not as those in Eden, which Wheel within wheel in freedom revolve, in harmony & peace.
I have mental joys and mental health, Mental friends and mental wealth, I've a wife that I love and that loves me; I've all but riches bodily.
Colouring does not depend on where the colours are put, but on where the lights and darks are put, and all depends on form and outline, on where that is put.
To my eye Rubens' colouring is most contemptible. His shadows are a filthy brown somewhat the colour of excrement.
All pictures that's painted with sense and with thought / Are painted by madmen as sure as a groat; / For the greater the fool in the pencil more blest, / And when they are drunk they always paint best.
Energy is an eternal delight.
Angels are happier than men and devils, because they are not always prying after good and evil in one another, and eating the tree of knowledge for Satan's gratification.
Ages are All Equal. / But Genius is Always Above The Age.
Invention depends altogether upon execution or organization; as that is right or wrong so is the invention perfect or imperfect.
Exuberance is Beauty." "If a thing loves, it is infinite." "Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained." "The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
Time is the Mercy of Eternity
Works of Art can only be produc'd in Perfection where the Man is either in Affluence or is Above the Care of it.
What has reasoning to do with painting?
God and His Priest and King,...make up a heaven of our misery.