A celebration of 250 years since the birth of William Blake

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827),enjoys a special place in British art and letters. As an artist and a poet, his visionary works have influenced both high art and popular culture up to the present day.

The Tate opened as the National Gallery of British Art in 1897, and it quickly recognised Blake’s importance and appeal. By the 1920s Tate had, uniquely, a dedicated Blake gallery (in what is now Room 16). This created the first mass audience for Blake’s art, and it was nurtured by the growing curiosity about an artist and writer previously known by only a few of his words and images.

There is no comparable artist-poet to Blake: his visionary themes and the visual impact of his prints, paintings and illuminated books place him in a class of his own. There is little about him - his character, prophetic impulses, verse, art and mythological schemes - that doesn’t pose questions. Blake always puts the imagination to work: as he wrote, ‘This world of Imagination is the world of Eternity’.

This display has been devised by curator Robin Hamlyn

BP British Art Displays 1500-2008