William Blake (1757-1827) ... from The First Book of Urizen, relief etching 1794

John Bingley Garland...Victorian Blood Book... Sept 1854

Assembled from several hundred engravings, many taken from books of etchings by William Blake, as well as other illustrations from early nineteenth-century books. The principal motifs are natural (birds, animals, and especially snakes) and Christian (images of the crucifixion, scenes from the Bible, and crusaders). Drops of red india ink and extensive religious commentary have been added to many of the images.

inscribed "To Amy Lester Garland--A legacy left in his lifetime for her future examination by her affectionate father" September 1st 1854

John Linnell...The Man Who Taught Blake Painting in his Dreams (after William Blake)...c1825

A Divine Image

Cruelty has a human heart,

And Jealousy a human face;

Terror the human form divine,

And Secresy the human dress.

The human dress is forged iron,

The human form a fiery forge,

The human face a furnace sealed,

The human heart its hungry gorge. 

William Blake

Dolorosa... new work ... brazing muscled Joy 2012

  

Brazing Muscled Joy , pencil on paper 12"x 12" 2012

A new work on show now at  "William Blake ~ Visionary Artist"  at the

 Freedom Bookshop Whitechapel London ~

 

“Human thought is crush’d beneath the iron hand of Power…”

A group show in the Freedom Gallery of work inspired by Blake.

 from 2nd August - 30th September 2012

William Blake... A Devil or Satyr... c1810

click on image to enlarge

from the Robert H. Taylor art collection at the

Princeton University Library

William Blake... print & poem..1793

"The terror answerd: I am Orc, wreath'd round the accursed tree:
The times are ended; shadows pass the morning 'gins to break;
The fiery joy, that Urizen perverted to ten commands,
What night he led the starry hosts thro' the wide wilderness:
That stony law I stamp to dust: and scatter religion abroad
To the four winds as a torn book, & none shall gather the leaves;
But they shall rot on desert sands, & consume in bottomless deeps;
To make the deserts blossom, & the deeps shrink to their fountains,
And to renew the fiery joy, and burst the stony roof.
That pale religious letchery, seeking Virginity,
May find it in a harlot, and in coarse-clad honesty
The undefil'd tho' ravish'd in her cradle night and morn:
For every thing that lives is holy, life delights in life;
Because the soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd.
Fires inwrap the earthly globe, yet man is not consumed;
Amidst the lustful fires he walks: his feet become like brass,
His knees and thighs like silver, & his breast and head like gold.
And Satan is the Spectre of Orc & Orc is the generate Luvah"

 

 from America : A prophecy

Happy Birthday!... William Blake (28 November 1757–12 August 1827)

"Do what you will, this world's a fiction and is made up of contradiction."

William Blake

Blake...Agony in the Garden...

Agony in the garden circa 1799-1800