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Obscured vision
The meaning and purpose of William Blake's work is only partly in evidence at Tate Britain, says CHRISTINE LINDEY
Blake-Newton

William Blake
Tate Britain

OFTEN linked to Constable and Turner as one of the three great British 19th-century Romantic artists, William Blake was a genuinely unique poet, printmaker and painter.

[[{"fid":"16541","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Albion Rose by William Blake","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Albion Rose by William Blake","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"Albion Rose by William Blake","class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]But, unlike them, he was never accepted by  the art establishment of his day. He died a pauper at the age of 69 in 1827.

Despite a small middle-class following, he remained a social outsider due to his class, political radicalism and for being an artisan rather than a trained “fine artist” at a time when the art establishment, led by Joshua Reynolds, was redefining art as a liberal pursuit on a par with the gentlemanly intellectual pursuits of literature and philosophy.

Liberation webinar, 30 November2024, 6pm (UK)
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