Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/824

806 asserts itself, and for the remainder of his life Blake was pre-eminently a designer and engraver. The labour of poetical composition continues, but the product passes beyond the range of general comprehension ; while, with apparent inconsistency, the work of the artist gains steadily in strength and coherence, and never to the last loses its hold upon the understanding. It may almost be said without exaggeration that his earliest poetic work, The Songs of Innocence, and nearly his latest effort in design, the illustrations to the The Book of Job, take rank among the sanest and most admirable products of his genius. Nor is the fact, astonishing enough at first sight, quite beyond a possible explanation. As Blake advanced in his poetic career, he was gradually hindered and finally overpowered by a tendency that svas most serviceable to him in design. His inclination to substitute a symbol for a conception, to make an image do duty for an idea, became an insuperable obstacle to literary success. He endeavoured constantly to treat the intellectual material of verse as if it could be moulded into sensuous form, with the inevitable result that as the ideas to be expressed advanced in complexity and depth of meaning, his poetic gifts became gradually more inadequate to the task of interpretation. The earlier poems dealing with simpler themes, and put forward at a time when the bent of the artist s mind was not strictly determined, do not suffer from this difficulty ; the symbolism then only enriches an idea of no intellectual intricacy ; but when Blake began to concern himself with profounder problems the want of a more logical understanding of language made itself strikingly apparent. If his ways of thought and modes of workmanship had not been developed with an intensity almost morbid, he would probably have been able to dis tinguish and keep separate the double functions of art and literature As it is, however, he remains as an extreme illustration of the ascendency of the artistic faculty. For this tendency to translate ideas into image, and to find for every thought, however simple or sublime, a precise and sensuous form, is of the essence of pure artistic inven tion. If this be accepted as the dominant bent of Blake s genius, it is not so wonderful that his work in art should have strengthened in proportion as his poetic powers waned; but whether the explanation satisfies all the require ments of the case or not, the fact remains, and cannot be overlooked by any student of Blake s career. In 1796 Blake was actively employed in the work of illustration. Edwards, a bookseller of New Bond Street, projected a new edition of Young s Night Thoughts, and Blake was chosen to illustrate the work. It was to have been issued in parts, but for some reason not very clear the enterprise failed, and only a first part, including forty- three designs, was given to the world. These designs were engraved by Blake himself, and they are interesting not only for their own merit but for the peculiar system by which the illustration has been associated with the text. Quite recently it has been discovered that the artist had executed original designs in water colour for the whole series, and these drawings, 537 in number, form one of the most interesting records of Blake s genius. Mr Gilchrist, the painter s careful and sympathetic biographer, in commenting upon the engraved plates, regrets the absence of colour, the use of which Blake so well understood, to relieve his simple design and give it significance,&quot; and an examination of the original water colour drawings fully supports the justice of his criticism. Soon after the publi cation of this work Blake was introduced by Flax man to the poet Hayley, and in the year 1801 he accepted the suggestion of the latter, that he should take up his re sidence at Felpham in Sussex. The mild and amiable poet had planned to write a life of Cowper, and for the illustration of this and other works he sought Blake s help and companionship. The residence at Felpham continued for three years, partly pleasant arid partly irksome to Blake, but apparently not very profitable to the progress of his art. One of the annoyances of his stay was a malicious prosecution for treason set on foot by a common soldier whom Blake had summarily ejected from his garden ; but a more serious drawback was the in creasing irritation which the painter seems to have ex perienced from association with Hayley. In 1804 Blake returned to London, to take up his residence in South Moulton Street, and as the fruit of his residence in Felp ham, he piiblished, in the manner already described, the prophetic books called the Jerusalem, The Emanation of the Giant Albion, and Milton. The first of these is a very notable performance in regard to artistic invention. Many of the designs stand out from the text in complete in dependence, and are now and then of the very finest quality. In the years 1804-1805 Blake executed a series of designs in illustration of Blair s Grave, of much beauty and grandeur, though showing stronger traces of imitation of Italian art than any earlier production. These designs were purchased from the artist by an adventurous and unscrupulous publisher, Cromek, for the paltry sum of 21, and afterwards published in a series of engravings by Schiavonetti. Despite the ill treatment Blake received in the matter, and the other evils, including a quarrel with his friend Stothard as to priority of invention of a design illustrating the Canterbury Pilgrims, which his association with Cromek involved, the book gained for him a larger amount of popularity than he at any other time secured. Stothard s picture of the Canterbury Pilgrims was exhibited in 1807, and in &quot;1809 Blake, in emulation of his rival s success, having himself painted in water colour a picture of the same subject, opened an exhibition, and drew up a Descriptive Catalogue, curious and interesting, and containing a very valuable criticism of Chaucer. The remainder of the artist s life is not outwardly eventful. In 1813 he formed, through the introduction of George Cumberland of Bristol, a valuable friendship with Mr John Linnell and other rising water colour painters. Amongst the group Blake seems to have found special sympathy in the society of Varley, who, himself addicted to astrology, encouraged Blake to cultivate his gift of inspired vision ; and it is probably to this influence that we are indebted for several curious drawings made; from visions, especially the celebrated &quot;ghost of a flea&quot; and the very humorous portrait of the builder of the Pyramids. In 1821 Blake removed to Fountain Court, in the Strand, where he died 1827. The chief work of these last years was the splendid series of engraved designs in illustration of the book of Job. Here we find the highest imaginative qualities of Blake s art united to the technical means of expression which he best understood. Both the invention and the engraving are in all ways re markable, and the series may fairly be cited in support of a very high estimate of his genius. None of his works are without the trace of that peculiar artistic instinct and power which seizes the pictorial element of ideas, simple or sublime, and translates them into the appropriate language of sense; but here the double faculty finds the happiest exercise. The grandeur of the theme is duly reflected in the simple and sublime images of the artist s design, and in the pre sence of these plates we are made to feel the power of the artist over the expressional resources of human form, as well as his sympathy with the imaginative significance of his subject. A life of Blake, with selections from his works by Alexander Gilchrist, was published in 1863; in 1868 Mr Swinburne published a critical essay on his genius re- 