List of Artworks

We collate all of the artworks and literature featured in this website into a comprehensive list below, allowing you to browse through a full list of William Blake artworks.

The earliest influences on William Blake would be members of the Renaissance who he came across whilst studying at a drawing academy. The two most prominent in his mind would be Raphael and Michelangelo, both of whom were highly accomplished draughtsmen. He would then move onto to an apprenticeship as an illustrator of classical antiquities before then moving into engraving. It was clear that Blake had some exceptional natural artistic talents, as first recognised by his family, and that he also was interested in a great variety of different artistic mediums from an early age. He was fortunate in his background which enabled opportunities to arise and ensure that these talents would not go to waste.

Beyond the clear technical ability which was honed over many years of practice and training, William Blake artworks were also heavily impacted by his imagination, with visions regularly flooding his mind with all manner of new ideas. These would come from beyond reality, sometimes with a religious theme, and this helps to explain the content and style of this artist's drawings and paintings. He certainly had only one foot in the real world, and positively encouraged his mind to run free as it became clear as to how it could help broaden his oeuvre and also add a unique element to his career against the other artists who were active at that time.

Despite the clear connection to alternative worlds, Blake also found inspiration for his work from real world problems, with his own opinions being broadly socialist and progressive. He desired the abolition of slavery for example, as well as greater equality for women, and whilst we all see these as the views of most today, this was less common at the time. He would draw attention to the plights of both identities with some of his best work, which was ideally suited to the expressive and emotional nature of Romanticist art. To see a prominent artist sending out messages such as this from within the establishment, would have helped others to continue these respective fights in other areas of society and also given hope to many more besides.

William Blake was someone who draw literature and art close together, in a number of ways. He would both become an author himself, but also produced a number of illustrations for books and various other publications. It seemed there was literally no limit to his talents and he managed to achieve a surprisingly high level of work across so many different formats, due in the main to his natural artistic talents as well as a fierce passion for expression and experimentation. The result of all of this is a wonderfully varied oeuvre, with some of his most famous artworks captured together here for your interest. His prominence within a number of major UK art galleries has also helped to keep his reputation very much in our minds, all these centuries later.