William Blake: A Study of His Life and Art WorkLangridge, Irene
General
William Blake: A Study of His Life and Art Work
Langridge, Irene
Blake, William, 1757-1827
While at Lambeth he made three large and important
drawings--"Nebuchadnezzar," an enlarged edition of the bearded figure on
hands and knees which occurs in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"; "The
Lazar House" and "The Elohim creating Adam." He also made designs for
Young's "Night Thoughts." There were 537 designs made, and Blake only took
a year to do them. A selected few were engraved. While at Lambeth he
printed also his "Visions of the Daughters of Albion," "America,"
"Europe," "Urizen," "The Gates of Paradise," "The Book of Los," "The Song
of Los," and "Ahania." The list implies steady application, and untiring
intellectual and spiritual energy.
[Illustration: THE LAZAR HOUSE, FROM MILTON
Water-colour, 1795]
The introduction of our painter, in 1800, by his old friend Flaxman, to
Hayley, poetaster and dilettante, marks the beginning of a new epoch in
his life.
Hayley, the friend of Gibbon and, later, of Cowper (whose biography he
wrote), was a characteristic product of the last quarter of the eighteenth
century,--that age of complaisant preoccupation with trifles.
This poetically barren interval before the birth of the wonderful new
school of poetry had, since the best days of Cowper, but one star above
its horizon--or was it a will-o'-the-wisp?--the _soi-disant_ poet Hayley.
Complaisantly he twinkled on his admiring world, and, striking the lyre
with gracious hand, sang with modest satisfaction "The Triumphs of
Temper." This now forgotten work earned him the position of "greatest of
living poets," and he assumed his high seat in the literary world with
bustling alacrity. Above all things he aspired to culture, not at the
expense of a very continuous effort or strain, it is true, but he loved to
collect around him artists and men of letters to whom he could play the
part of a somewhat undersized Lorenzo de' Medici. That they would respond
gracefully, and take their parts becomingly in this garden-comedy, was all
that he required of his court.
It will be remembered that Romney was one of his artist friends, and that
the connection proved in a way economically disastrous to the painter, for
Hayley was an extravagant man, though he professed simple tastes, and
encouraged poor Romney in his mania for building and other lavish
expenditure.
His influence, such as it was, was stimulating to none of his friends,
though he meant well and kindly enough. He affected the part of the
country gentleman, as well as that of the high priest of culture, and
delighted in patronage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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