William Blake
Early Life, Family and Training William Blake was born on November 28, 1757, in London, England. He was raised in a household above his father’s hosier shop at 28 Broad Street. His parents, James Blake and Catherine Wright Armitage Blake, provided a stable environment during a period of significant social change in the city. While his upbringing was marked by the modest means of a tradesman's family, his early years were defined by a singular, intense imagination that often manifested in visions, such as seeing angels in the branches of a tree during childhood walks. Formal training began a…
The Subject Atlas
A chart of William Blake's corpus mapped not by date but by subject. Spokes are what they painted; rings are when; and the threads between stars reveal the patrons and places that secretly connect them.
Spokes — Subject
Each arm of the atlas gathers works by what they depict: portraits, sacred scenes, mythologies, and the scientific studies. Click a spoke to swing that cluster to the top.
Rings — Career Period
Distance from the center marks time. The innermost ring is the earliest period; the outermost, the final years. Style matures as you move outward.
Threads — Shared Context
Coloured lines link works bound by the same patron, commission, or theme. Trace a context to watch related clusters light up across subjects.