William Blake (1757–1827)

Brief Biography of the Artist

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English printmaker, painter and poet. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. He saw the arts in all their forms as offering insights into the metaphysical world and his broader aims were primarily theological and philosophical.

Read full Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake

Blake in the Archive Collections

Brian Sewell Archive

Brian Sewell (1931–2015) was a British art historian, author, critic and media personality. His highly acclaimed work for the Evening Standard and other publications led him to write on a huge range of subjects, but particularly the arts. The archive contains one file which, alongside handwritten notes and research material, includes Sewell’s reviews of exhibitions featuring Blake between 2000 and 2009.

The Brian Sewell archive has been catalogued and the descriptions can be searched online.

The Paul Mellon Centre Institutional Archive

Publishing academic titles has always been one of the Centre’s most significant activities. The biggest project ever undertaken in relation to this initiative was a Dictionary of British Painters. When the idea was first conceived and scoped in the early 1960s the proposal was for a 15 volume, 50,000-word entry text. By the late 1960s, however, the enormous scale of the project had become apparent and the project was never realised. The archive contains preliminary entries for artists whose surnames began with the letters A and B.

There is one file specifically dedicated to Blake. The material related to the unsuccessful Dictionary of British Painters have been catalogued and the descriptions can be searched online.

The above archive collections contain substantial amounts of material for Blake. You may also discover smaller quantities of material, such as individual letters referencing the artist, research notes and photographs, by searching the online catalogue and boxlists.

Blake in the Photographic Archives

• The Paul Mellon Centre Photo Archive consists of mounted reference images depicting works of art. It has been digitised in its entirety and contains over 400 images associated with William Blake. One highlight is a selection of figure studies from an 1819 sketchbook once in the collection of John Varley (1778–1842), which was documented in a sale at Christie's in 1971.
• The Tate Photo Archive has not been digitised but contains 14 folders of images associated with Blake. It can be accessed on site with an appointment.

Blake in the Library

The Library has a large amount of material on this artist.

• Books – over 130 books dating from the late nineteenth century to the present day. The collection includes biographies, artist monographs, art criticism, catalogues of collections and a catalogue raisonné.
• Exhibition catalogues – over 30 exhibition catalogues from a variety of regional and international museums and galleries.
• Journal articles – over 15 journal articles that have been individually catalogued dating from the early 2000s to the present day published in journals such as the Burlington Magazine, Print Quarterly and Visual Culture in Britain.
• Auction catalogues – over 10 auction catalogues dating from the early twentieth century from institutions such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s.
• Theses – two theses relating to William Blake’s art.

Blake in Paul Mellon Centre Publications

There are four books published by the Paul Mellon Centre concerning William Blake. A biography of William Blake, The Stranger From Paradise, produced by Gerald Eades Bentley in 2001 is available in the Library catalogue, along with a collection of all the known documentary records relating to Blake's long and productive life, by the same author, published in 2004. Joseph Viscomi’s William Blake's Printed Paintings: Methods, Origins, Meanings was published in 2021. In addition, a complete and authoritative catalogue raisonné of Blake’s paintings and drawings was produced by Martin Butlin and published in 1981.