File:William_Blake_by_Thomas_Phillips.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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William Blake

Also known as W. Blake, Uil'iam Bleik, Blake

English poet and artist (1757–1827)

AI overview

William Blake was an English poet and visual artist from the late 1700s and early 1800s who created distinctive illustrated books combining his own poetry with engraved and hand-colored artwork. His visionary style and imaginative themes made him influential in Romantic literature and art, though he remained relatively obscure during his lifetime.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 28 November 1757
Died: 12 August 1827
Works: 676

Top works

A new and improved Roman history
Quid rides
Miscellaneous poems ; Paradise regain'd ; & Samson Agonistes
The shepherd
Songs of innocence and experience

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: United States
Active from: 1969-04-28

Discography

Piano for Dummies1998
Royal Fantasy2022

Official site Discogs Stream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 5,088
Total plays: 20,444

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

VMD: Visual molecular dynamics
· 1996 · cited 61,676x
Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure
· 1976 · cited 43,968x
Comparison of simple potential functions for simulating liquid water
· 1983 · cited 39,036x
Gene Ontology: tool for the unification of biology
· 2000 · cited 36,358x
Social Identity Theory and the Organization
· 1989 · cited 31,517x

via Crossref · CC0

Authority record · VIAF

Lifespan: 1757–1827
Nationality: GB
Role / Field: Poet, Artist, Printmakers, Poets, Poetes, Prints
Language: eng
Gender: Male

Recorded by 43 libraries

via VIAF · OCLC

Quotes

“Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more.”
“The true method of knowledge is experiment.”
“There can be no Good Will. Will is always Evil; it is persecution to others or selfishness.”
“If a thing loves, it is infinite.”
“Does the Eagle know what is in the pit? Or wilt thou go ask the Mole? Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod? Or Love in a golden bowl?”
“How sweet I roamed from field to field,And tasted all the summer's pride,Till I the prince of love beheld,Who in the sunny beams did glide!”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Wikidata facts

Image: William Blake by Thomas Phillips.jpg

Show 8 more facts

Commons category: William Blake
date of birth: 1757-01-01
date of death: 1827-01-01
Commons gallery: William Blake
Commons Creator page: William Blake
date of baptism: 1757-12-11
name in native language: William Blake
P12749: Vezia

Sources (12)

via Wikidata · CC0

Works in European collections

3 objects attributed to William Blake, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

Songs Of Innocence

Visions of the Daughters of Albion

Untitled

~40 min read

Article

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. What he called his "prophetic works" were said by the 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God", or "human existence itself".

Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he came to be highly regarded by later critics and readers for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as "Pre-Romantic". He was hostile to the Church of England (indeed, to almost all forms of organised religion), and was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American Revolutions. Although later he rejected many of these political beliefs, he maintained an amicable relationship with the political activist Thomas Paine; he was also influenced by thinkers such as Emanuel Swedenborg. Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th-century scholar William Michael Rossetti characterised him as a "glorious luminary", and "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors".