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William Blake

@williamblake.bsky.social

470 followers 3 following 1.3K posts

English poet, painter, and printmaker, 1757-1827. // #artbot made thanks to @andreitr.bsky.social and @botfrens.bsky.social

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William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 39m

The Hypocrites with Caiaphas. Verso: Sketch of a Stooping Figure http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-hypocrites-with-caiaphas-verso-sketch-of-a-stooping-figure-n03359

Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the Art Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the the Art Fund 1919

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 13h

War https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/297821

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 20h

And Elohim created Adam https://www.wikiart.org/en/william-blake/and-elohim-created-adam-1795

And Elohim created Adam

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 1d

First Book of Urizen pl. 6 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-first-book-of-urizen-pl-6-t13002

Purchased with funds provided by the Art Fund, Tate Members, Tate Patrons, Tate Fund and individual donors 2009

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 1d

When the Almighty was yet with me, When my Children were about me https://collections.artsmia.org/art/46422/

God is Job's own ideal and bears a resemblance to Job. This God reigns supreme with the book of Law open in his lap. Being Job's ideal, he can claim that Job is perfect. Satan the Accuser appears before the Lord. Job questions his own piety. The two dim faces beneath the arms of Satan are the shadowy error of Job and his wife. Although angels cast scrolls listing Job's good deeds, until that error is given definite form, it cannot be recognized and cast out. Although Job tried to raise his children properly he knows that his sons feasted nightly and cursed God. Yet Job does not want to know how they are really acting and turns his back on his oldest son who sits with his mistress and their baby. His son lives his life according to his own instincts-the natural reaction of children against the perfection of a stern father. The vignette in the margins reinforces the idea of the illustration. Below to the right and left are Job and his wife still in the pastoral state of innocence. But above them respectively to the right are the parrot of vain repetitions and to the left the peacock of pride.

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 1d

Pity http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-pity-n05062

Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1939

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 1d

The Circle of the Lustful: Francesca da Rimini (‘The Whirlwind of Lovers’) http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-circle-of-the-lustful-francesca-da-rimini-the-whirlwind-of-lovers-t01950

Presented by Lessing J. Rosenwald 1975

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 2d

‘A Rolling Stone is ever Bare of Moss’ http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-a-rolling-stone-is-ever-bare-of-moss-a00120

Presented by Herbert Linnell 1924

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 2d

Thenot and Colinet http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-thenot-and-colinet-t02115

Presented by British Museum Publications Ltd 1977

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 2d

The Pastorals of Virgil, Eclogue I: The Blasted Tree https://clevelandart.org/art/1934.145

In 1820, Blake was commissioned to illustrate a new edition of The Pastorals of Virgil, published as a school text, which included commentary by Dr. Robert John Thornton on the famous poem from the 1st century BC. Blake’s seventeen wood engravings became tremendously influential to the Ancients. Samuel Palmer (also in this gallery) wrote of these wood engravings: "They are visions of little dells, and nooks, and corners of Paradise; models of the exquisitest [sic] pitch of intense poetry... There is in all such a mystic and dreamy glimmer as penetrates and kindles the inmost [sic] soul." Despite Palmer’s poetic description, Blake’s wood engravings were not images of an unchanging paradise. Instead, they record an evershifting and often ambiguous relationship between the artist and his environment. They describe a landscape of Blake’s imagination---a wellspring of dreams and artistic inspiration, yet simultaneously a land of doubts and shadows, sweet delusions and unformed hopes.

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 3d

The Soldiers Casting Lots for Christ's Garments https://www.wikiart.org/en/william-blake/the-soldiers-casting-lots-for-christ-s-garments-1800

The Soldiers Casting Lots for Christ's Garments

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 3d

The Minotaur (from Dante's "Divine Comedy"); verso: possible sketch for "The Devils Under the Bridge" https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/297950

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 3d

Dante and the Usurers (from Dante's "Divine Comedy") https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/297553

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 4d

The Agony in the Garden http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-agony-in-the-garden-n05894

Presented by the executors of W. Graham Robertson through the Art Fund 1949

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 4d

The Good and Evil Angels https://www.wikiart.org/en/william-blake/the-good-and-evil-angels

The Good and Evil Angels

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 4d

The Crucifixion: ‘Behold Thy Mother’ http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-crucifixion-behold-thy-mother-n05895

Presented by the executors of W. Graham Robertson through the Art Fund 1949

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 5d

When the morning Stars sang together, & all the Sons of God shouted for joy https://collections.artsmia.org/art/46452/

Mystical ecstasy is a state of knowledge as well as emotion but the knowledge is usually so profound as to be incommunicable afterward. Blake possessed two arts to capture and define the wisdom derived from ecstasy. The vision in the universe evoked in this illustration reflects Job's experience with the Whirlwind depicted in the preceding plate. This universe is the fourfold soul of man: the flesh, the brain, the heart, and the imagination. The lowest is the world of the flesh, where Job sits with his wife and friends enclosed by the thickest cloud-barriers. Above them to the left is the Greek god Apollo, who represents the intellect. This radiant sun god, drawn by the horses of instruction, strives perpetually to push back the clouds enclosing his domain to enlarge it. His counterpart on the right is the moon goddess Diana, the heart. Her purity guides the dragons of passion during the night of marriage. Highest of all is the realm of the imagination, enclosed by the thinnest cloud-barriers. It is separated from the others by a small space, which expands into other empty spaces, suggesting that there exist as yet unknown worlds in the human soul. The central figure of God is always the Divine Imagination in Blake's writings. He is in the cruciform position of self-sacrifice. His arms protect the brain and the heart, and only through him can the realm of spirit be entered. In his poems, Blake named these realms "the Four Zoas": Tharmas, the flesh; Urizen, the intellect; Luvah, the emotions; and Los, the creative spirit. In the side margins are the six days of the creation, the Sabbath and Millennium, the spiritual rebirth of man. The lower margin continues the cloud-barrier of the realm of the flesh with the Leviathan of Nature, which resides in the Sea of Time and Space. Below him is the worm of death, coiled around a shrouded corpse. In the upper corners are the constellations Pleiades and Orion.

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 5d

Dante, Virgil and Cato (from Dante's "Divine Comedy") https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/297580

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 5d

Satan before the Throne of God http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-satan-before-the-throne-of-god-a00013

Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the Art Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the the Art Fund 1919

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 6d

Illustration to Milton`s Paradise Lost https://www.wikiart.org/en/william-blake/illustration-to-milton-s-paradise-lost-1808-2

Illustration to Milton`s Paradise Lost

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 6d

Christ Appearing to the Apostles after the Resurrection http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-christ-appearing-to-the-apostles-after-the-resurrection-n05875

Bequeathed by W. Graham Robertson 1948

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 6d

Thenot and Colinet Folding their Flocks together at Sunset http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-thenot-and-colinet-folding-their-flocks-together-at-sunset-a00124

Presented by Herbert Linnell 1924

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 7d

The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-wood-of-the-self-murderers-the-harpies-and-the-suicides-n03356

Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the Art Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the the Art Fund 1919

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 7d

The Book of Job: Pl. 7, And when they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not / they lifted up their voices and wept https://clevelandart.org/art/1968.260.h

The Book of Job: Pl. 7, And when they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not / they lifted up their voices and wept

William Blake @williamblake.bsky.social · 7d

The Baffled Devils Fighting http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-baffled-devils-fighting-t01952

Presented by Lessing J. Rosenwald 1975