Evening star., 1937-11-06
By Leila MechHn.
HO HAVE the opportunity to see
/ a dozen original works by Will
liam Blake, which the Phillips

and, as rule. inaccessible; beside
which even the name of Blake is today
one to conjure with.
The works on exhibition comprise
eight of the famous illustrations made
for the Book of Job, which have been
lent by the Morgan Library of New
York. and four water colors lent by
the Metropolitan Museum, also of
New York City
Blake. poet, engraver and painter,
was born in London in 1857, and
there he remained practically all the
70 years of his life. He was of humble
birth, the second son of hosier, and
he always lived in humble surround
ings, but in a boundless world of his
own created by his extraordinary
imagination and with a supreme sense
Of his own artistic superiority
When he was 10 years of age his
parents, realizing his talent, sent him
to one of the best art schools in
London. and at ID apprenticed him
to an engraver named Ryland. Young
Blake had manifested his aptness for
art by drawing pictures on the bills
his father was sending out to his
patrons. and his prophetic vision, by
declaring that the engraver to whom
he was apprenticed would some day
be hung, which he was-but he must
have been a tractable and industrious
student.
From It'll to 1778 he studied en-
craving under James Basert, who al
lowed him to work on his plates and
had him make a series of engravings
of the interiors of London churches.
Some biographers have supposed that
it was this assignment, entalllng long,
solitary hours in the empty houses
of worship, which induced Blake'S in
tereSt and belief in the supernatural;
but the fact is that from early child
hood the spiritual world seemed to
him real and at close hand At the
age of 4 he is credited with having
said that God put His forehead to
the window" and at or 10 he told
of having seen tree bright with
angels"
THESE visions continued all of his
- life. With perfect simplicity he
maintained, dntil his life's end, that
he had held conference with Moses,
Homer. Socrates. Dante, Shakespeare
and Milton, not as something re-
markable, but entirely normal.
The method of using half engraving
and half etching for the issuance OF
his first books he insisted he had
learned from his deceased brother,
Robert, in a dream. Certainly he had
an imagination so vivid that his crea-
tions seemed to him real.
You can see what 1 do" he used
to say. Work up imagination to the
state of vision and the thing is done
This is the secret of his art. But,
had he not backed up his imagination
with industry and technical ability. 1t
would have been meaningless Blake
lost no opportunity to perfect his
craft-thiS he held, and rightly, was
essential to adequate expression.
For a time Blake studied in the
Royal Academy, but this study lrked
him. The faithful imitation of nat
ural Objects" he protested, weakened
and obiterated imagination" and he
declared the so-called life" to look
more like death to his mind and 10
"smell of mortality"
All this time he was buying three
penny prints of works of the old
masters and learning from them. In
later years he repeatedly asserted. He
who thinks he can print or engrave
without being a master of drawing is
fool
Painting" he said, ''is drawing on
canvas. engraving is drawing on cop
per. nothing else, and he who draws
best must be the best artist 1t
would be we'll if more of our young
present-day artists kept this in mind.
Blake married in 1882 young
woman of his own class, far from
learned-in fact illiterate, but with an
especially good mind and adaptablllty
The most perfect wife," according
to Swinburne, "on record, "a true
helpmate. 1t was she who assisted
him in printing and binding the books
he later wrote, illustrated and pub
lished. His Songs of Innocence" were
issued in 1887 and Songs of Expert
ence" shortly thereafter, both of
which have been declared the most
beautiful poetry in the literature OF
the world" These were written, en-
bellished, printed and bound by Blake.
but at the time of publication reached
very small circle They are now
among the rarest of collectors items.
RLAKE was over so when he did the
illustrations for the Book of job
These were engraved without etching
and have been declared lone of the
noblest sequences of designs in the rich
domain of religious art" After these
came his illustrations for Dante's
Divine Comedy" which were incom-
plete at his death And in between
came the Prophetic Book and others.
Many of the original illustrations for
these were burned after his death by
fanatic who thought them to have been
Inspired by Satan.
The beauty of some of Blake's draw
ings is supposed to represent reaction
and escape from the dreary surround
jngs in which he lived-the atmos-
phere of a second or third rate Lon
don lodging house-but it was beauty
within his own mind. for he never
Travelled abroad and very little in his
own country He was Londoner and
away from the city felt strangely un-
happy; but what wide fields, imagina-
lively, he had in which to roam. When
in 1927 he died, it was singing OF
the things he saw in Heaven"
Undoubtedly it is the unearthliness
of Blake's compositions which attract,
together with their adequate and ex-
celient rendition, and for this reason
his fame has steadily increased. He
Is one of the few equally esteemed to-
day by modernists and those who hold
to tradition. Why? Is it not because
he opens the door to strange worlds
and with the key of technical excel
lence?
He had numerous followers some