William blake biography timelines

William Blake was born in London on November 28, 1757, to James, a hosier, and Catherine Blake. Two of his six siblings died in infancy. From early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions—at four he saw God “put his head to the window”; around age nine, while walking through the countryside, he saw a tree filled with angels. Although his parents tried to discourage him from “lying,” they did observe that he was different from his peers and did not force him to attend a conventional school. Instead, he learned to read and write at home. At age ten, Blake expressed a wish to become a painter; so, his parents sent him to drawing school. Two years later, Blake began writing poetry. When he turned fourteen, he apprenticed with an engraver because art school proved too costly. One of Blake’s assignments as apprentice was to sketch the tombs at Westminster Abbey, exposing him to a variety of Gothic styles from which he would draw inspiration throughout his career. After

•

William Blake (1757 - 1827)

Portrait of William Blake by Thomas Phillips  ©Considered insane and largely disregarded by his peers, the visionary poet and engraver William Blake is now recognised among the greatest contributors to English literature and art.

He was born in Soho, London, where he lived most of his life, and was son to a hosier and his wife, both Dissenters. Blake's early ambitions lay not with poetry but with painting and at the age of 14, after attending drawing school, he was apprenticed to James Basire, engraver. After his seven-year term was complete, Blake studied at the Royal Academy, but he is known to have questioned the aesthetic doctrines of its president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and his stay there was brief. It nonetheless afforded him friendships with John Flaxman and Henry Fuseli, academics whose work may have influenced him.

In 1784, he set up a print shop, but within a few years the business floundered and for the rest of his life Blake eked out

•

Biography of William Blake

William Blake was an artist, illustrator, poet and visionary in the eighteenth/nineteenth centuries.

When and Where was he Born?

28th November 1757, 28 Broad Street, Golden Square, Soho, London, England.

Family Background:

William Blake was the second of fem children. Son of James, a hosier, and Catherine.

Education:

Taught by his mother. In turn he taught his own sister and then his wife. Thought to have attended Henry Par’s drawing school in the Strand, London at the age of ten. Royal Academy Schools, London.

Timeline of William Blake

1767: Birth of his favourite brother, Robert on 4th August. It was around this time that he had his first vision of angels sitting in the trees as he walked across Peckham Rye. He enters Henry Pars drawing school at 101 The Strand.

1769:William Blake begins writing poems at the age of twelve.

1772: He is apprenticed to the engraver James Basire in Great Queen Street, Lincoln