William Blake is recognised today as one of Britain's great artists and poets, but in his lifetime he did not have such a reputation. He was trained as a commercial reproductive engraver. Much of his modest income came from illustrating books, and engraving pictures by other artists. Though ambitious for his own work – he compared himself to Milton and Shakespeare - Blake could still write that 'I have no objection to Engraving after another Artist'.

As an artist and a poet, Blake was uniquely sensitive to the ways in which text and image could work together. Many of his illustrations add to the text as well as simply illustrating it. And for his illuminated books, Blake invented a new technique which integrated his poems with his illustrations on the same printed plate, emphasising the unity of text and image.

This display includes works by some of Blake’s friends and contemporaries, who illustrated the same subjects. Blake also illustrated far humbler books, such as a school edition of the Roman poet Virgil. It is testament to Blake’s originality that these designs inspired a group of younger artists, here represented by Samuel Palmer, who thought them ‘models of the exquisitist pitch of intense poetry’.

This display has been devised by curators Robin Hamlyn and Katherine Hunt

Collections 2003 - 1500