William Blake in the desolate market / G.E. Bentley Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bentley, G. E., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Blake, William, 1757-1827.

Blake, William.

Blake, William, 1757-1827--Finance, Personal.

Engravers--Great Britain--Biography.

Engravers.

Poets, English--18th century--Biography.

Poets, English.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montréal, Québec : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Experience taught William Blake that "Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy." His brilliant achievements as a poet, painter, and engraver brought him public notice, but little income. William Blake in the Desolate Market records how Blake, the most original of all the major English poets, earned his living. G.E. Bentley Jr, the dean of Blake scholars, details the poet's occupations as a commercial engraver, print-seller, teacher, copperplate printer, painter, publisher, and vendor of his own books. In his early career as a commercial engraver, Blake was modestly prosperous, but thereafter his fortunes declined. For his most ambitious commercial designs, he made hundreds of folio designs and scores of engravings, but was paid scarcely more than twenty pounds for two or three years' work. His invention of illuminated printing lost money, and many of his greatest works, such as Jerusalem, were left unsold at his death. He came to believe that his "business is not to gather gold, but to make glorious shapes." William Blake in the Desolate Market is an investigation of Blake's labours to support himself by his arts. The changing prices of his works, his costs and receipts, as well as his patrons and employers are expertly gathered and displayed to show the material side of the artistic career in Britain's Romantic period.

Contents:

Introduction: Blake in the Marketplace

Blake as a Commercial Engraver, 1772-1827

"A Blaze of Reputation": The Mathew Salon and Poetical Sketches (1783)

The Print Shop, 1784-1785

Blake as a Teacher, 1784-1827

The Blakes as Printers, 1784-1827

Blake as a Painter, 1779-1827

Blake as Publisher of Works in Conventional Typography

Blake's Works in Illuminated Printing, 1789-1827

Summary of Blake's Career

Appendix: Blake's Patrons.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed May 1, 2014).

ISBN:

9780773581678

0773581677

9780773590298

0773590293

OCLC:

881552235