William Blake

Blake, William (1757–1827), English poet and painter. With the help of his wife, Catherine Boucher, he developed a printing process that he used to illustrate and publish his own works, including Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), collections of lyrics that contrast natural beauty with humanity's material world. Blake was a revolutionary in both politics and religion, which is reflected in his art, particularly in the powerful “Prophetic Books,” in which he created a mythology of his own. The most famous of his Prophetic Books are The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (c.1790) and the epic Jerusalem (1804–20). Blake's work was largely ignored by his contemporaries, and his reputation grew significantly after his death.