William Blake

William Blake (1757–1827) was an English poet, painter and engraver, born in London. He remained little known and poor throughout his life. He invented his own method of colour printing to unite poetry and image, producing works such as Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and Illustrations of the Book of Job. His writing is filled with religious visions and mystical imagination, plain in language yet strange in imagery, standing apart from the literary and artistic circles of his day. Four of his works are held in this collection; public information is limited, so details of his life cannot be given at length. He is now regarded as a forerunner of Romanticism, and his union of poetry and visual art, together with his celebration of imagination, has had a lasting influence on later English literature and visual art.