"William Blake is a universal artist--an inspiration to visual artists, musicians, poets, and performers worldwide as well as everyone who aspires to the ideals of personal, spiritual, and creative liberty. His heroic story has inspired an invigorated generations. His personal struggles during a period of political terror and oppression, his technical innovations, and his political commitment all remain deeply relevant today. This book presents a comprehensive overview of Blake's work as a printmaker, poet, and painter, foregrounding his relationship with the art world of his time and telling the stories behind many of his most iconic images."--

This pioneer study of William Blake is based on the author's contention that Blake intertwined painting and poetry so successfully that they cannot well be separated. Mr. Hagstrum reveals the intimate relation of Blake's designs, borders, scenes, and colors to the poems they accompany. Beginning with the earliest tiny line engravings -- works produced shortly before the famous "Songs of Innocence" -- and ending with that late masterpiece, the illustrations for the Book of Job, Mr. Hagstrum analyzes all of Blake's major works. His unusual but important method of studying Blake alerts the reader to all the elements of the poet-painter's form. Blake's work is set in context by chapters on medieval illumination, on the art of the High Renaissance, on the emblem of the seventeenth century, and on Blake's own contemporaries. The many illustrations Mr. Hagstrum has chosen include some of the works of Dürer, Raphael, and others who inspired Blake. -- From publisher's description.