Osbert Burdett
Amajor figure of the Romantic Movement, the British artist William Blake (1757-1827) was atonce a painter, designer, engraver and poet. He devoted himself to the illustration of hisliterary works, and his texts developed following the lines of his engravings and fantastic drawings,becoming veritable illuminated manuscripts. Inspired by biblical and prophetical themes (Proverbsof Hell, The Everlasting Gospel and The Gates of Paradise), Blake’s art subtly combines the modernityof his time and of the Romantic Revolution with the classicism of the themes that he explored.Gifted with unequalled imagination and originality, the artist played with the diversity of hismedia in order to better externalise the demons that haunted him, as well as to plunge the vieweror reader into a profound melancholy. In this monograph, Osbert Burdett sheds light on the artand life of this extraordinary artist.