A major figure of the Romantic Movement, the British artist William Blake (1757-1827) was at once a painter, designer, engraver and poet. Inspired by Biblical and prophetical themes (Proverbs of Hell, The Everlasting Gospel and The Gates of Paradise), the artist played with the diversity of his media in order to better externalise the demons that haunted him, as well as to plunge the viewer or reader into a profound melancholy. In this monograph, Osbert Burdett sheds light on the art and life of this extraordinary artist, gifted with unequalled imagination and originality.

Boyhood 1757-1771

Apprenticeship and Marriage

Lyrical Poems

Poland Street and the Early Prophecies

Lambeth

Blake's Ideas on Art

Felpham with Hayley

Milton and Jerusalem

London Once More

Disciples and Death

Blake and the Sublime