W. Blake (Born in 1757) was born in London, England. He was a writer and artist of the 19th century who is regarded as an influential figure of the Romantic Age. He began writing at an early age and claimed to have had his first vision at age 10 (a vision of a tree full of angels). His writings have influenced countless artists and writers through the ages, and he has been deemed both an original thinker and a major poet. His artistic ability became evident in his youth, and he was enrolled at Henry Pars's drawing school by age ten. Here, he sketched the human figure which he copied from plaster casts of ancient statues. By the age of fourteen, he apprenticed with an engraver to the London Society of Antiquaries. His master sent him to Westminster Abbey to make drawings of monuments and tombs, and that’s where his lifelong love of gothic art was born. Around the same time, he began collecting prints of artists who had fallen out at the time, including Michelangelo, Raphael and Durer. Nearly 40 years later, in the catalog for an exhibition of his own work in 1809, he would lambast artists who he claimed endeavored to raise up a style against Michelangelo, Rafael, and the Antique.
Blake also rejected literary trends of the 18th century, preferring instead the Elizabethans (Spenser, Jonson and Shakespeare) and ancient ballads. In 1779, he completed his 7-year apprenticeship and became a copy engraver. Blake worked on projects for print and book publishers. He also took that time to prepare himself for a career as a painter, that very year he got admission to the Royal Academy of Art's Schools of Design. He began exhibiting his own works in 1780. While he was an established engraver, people began giving him commissions to paint watercolors. He painted scenes from the works of Shakespeare, Dante, Milton, and the Bible.
