BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON, UK
A religious man who disagreed with Church teachings, this is Blake’s expression of God’s perfection and omnipotence—“The Ancient of Days” is a name for God in Aramaic. The figure derives from 18th-century artists and Michelangelo. Compasses symbolizing the act of creation have been used in Medieval manuscripts and early Bibles.
An English poet, painter and printmaker who was largely ignored during his lifetime, William Blake is now seen as an exceptionally important artist of the Romantic Age. His visionary poetry and atmospheric artworks have shaped our views of the times in which he lived and have influenced generations of artists and writers since.
As a child, William Blake claimed to have seen a tree filled with angels. He grew up to develop a uniquely personal approach to art and poetry, exploiting a range of literary, mythological and biblical sources. Blake was born in London’s Golden Square, the son of a successful businessman. At the age of ten, he went to a drawing school in Covent Garden and at 14, he was apprenticed to James Basire (1730–1802), an engraver to the London Society of Antiquaries. In August 1779, he was admitted to the Royal Academy. Paying his way by producing engravings for novels and catalogs, he learned to draw from casts, life models and corpses, but his opinions clashed with several of his tutors. Three years later, he became a freelance engraver, initially working for the bookseller Joseph Johnson (1738–1809). In 1784, he opened a print shop, but the business was unsuccessful and within two years he was back working for Johnson.
When his younger brother Robert died, Blake claimed that his spirit came to him and revealed a secret technique for combining poem and picture on a single printing plate. In 1788, he began producing illuminated books using this method. This launched the most creative and productive period of his life. He used several other techniques, avoiding oil paints as he believed they did not give him enough clarity of line, but he often worked in tempera, woodcut, relief etching, monotype and watercolor. Many of his works portray his feelings about human dishonesty and oppression.
After the political upheavals of the Revolution in France in 1789, Blake’s work became even more radical. He began to adapt his printing to produce full-scale paintings and was commissioned to produce many engravings and watercolors. In 1800, the writer William Hayley (1745–1820) invited Blake to live on his estate in Sussex, in southern England. He moved there and was delighted by the natural beauty of the area, but by 1802, the situation had soured. Tired of the trivial commissions from Hayley and his society neighbors, Blake moved back to London in 1803.
However, success proved more elusive than ever. When he held an exhibition in his brother’s hosiery shop in 1809, he was mocked as “an unfortunate lunatic whose personal inoffensiveness secures him from confinement.” By 1810, Blake was impoverished and estranged from his friends and patrons. He continued to work, however, believing Jerusalem, an epic about war, peace and liberty focused on London, to be his finest work. As he turned 60, his work at last began to be admired by younger artists.
Key Works
God Judging Adam 1795, TATE BRITAIN, LONDON, UK
Newton c.1805, TATE BRITAIN, LONDON, UK
Nebuchadnezzar c.1805, TATE BRITAIN, LONDON, UK
The Good and Evil Angels c.1805, TATE BRITAIN, LONDON, UK
The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve c.1826, TATE BRITAIN, LONDON, UK
HOKUSAI
1760–1849 • UKIYO-E
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
c.1831 COLOR WOODCUT
25.4 × 37.1 CM (10 × 15 IN)
ORIGINAL IS IN HAKONE MUSEUM, KANAGAWA-PREFECTURE, JAPAN
Introducing direct observation of nature and ordinary people, Hokusai revolutionized Japanese art. This picture is from his Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Its asymmetrical, dynamic composition features humans engulfed beneath a giant wave, with the sacred Mount Fuji in the background.
The leading Ukiyo-ē painter and printmaker of Japan’s Edo period, Katsushika Hokusai became particularly appreciated in the West when his prints were imported to Paris in the middle of the 19th century.
Hokusai is considered one of the outstanding figures of the Ukiyo-ē, or “pictures of the floating world” (everyday life), school of printmaking. His prints were collected by many European artists during the 19th century, including Monet, Degas, van Gogh, Whistler and Toulouse-Lautrec, while several art and design movements, including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Art Nouveau, reflect aspects of his style.
Born in Edo (now Tokyo), from the age of about 12 Hokusai worked in a bookshop selling books made from popular woodcut blocks. Within a few years, he began training in woodcut printmaking in the studio of leading Ukiyo-ē artist Katsukawa Shunshō (1726–92). Ukiyo-ē focused on images of the courtesans and Kabuki actors in contemporary Japanese cities. Over the following years, Hokusai produced thousands of book illustrations and color prints, drawing his inspiration from the traditions and legends of the Japanese people.
On the death of Shunshō in 1793, Hokusai began exploring other styles and subjects, including European styles he saw in French and Dutch copper engravings. He moved away from the images of courtesans and actors and began focusing on landscapes and images of the daily life of Japanese people. These subjects were revolutionary in Ukiyo-ē. He developed a curving, expressive and graceful style but it was not until his series the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, published between 1826 and 1833, that he became appreciated internationally. His enormous output of about 30,000 prints gained him acclaim in the Western world, particularly the three-volume book One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, which he produced at the age of 75.
Key Works
Fishing Boats at Choshi in Shimosa FROM THE SERIES, 1,000 PICTURES OF THE OCEAN, c.1833, ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, CHICAGO, IL, US
Fuji in Clear Weather FROM THE SERIES, THIRTY VIEWS OF MOUNT FUJI, c.1831–4, FINE ART MUSEUM OF SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, US
Kojikisawa in the Kai Province 1823–31, STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
Rough Sea at Naruto in Awa Province FROM THE SERIES, PICTURES OF FAMOUS PLACES IN THE SIXTY-ODD PROVINCES, 1855, CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, WI, US
FRIEDRICH
1774–1840 • ROMANTICISM
Moonrise over the Sea
1822 OIL ON CANVAS
54.9 × 71.1 CM (21.6 × 28 IN)
NATIONALGALERIE, STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN, GERMANY
During the early 1820s, Friedrich frequently incorporated human figures into his paintings. This choice of subject matter was quite groundbreaking; the infinite stretch of the sea disappearing into the strange light of the rising moon and the figures almost silhouetted against it.
The major painter of the Romantic Movement in Germany, Caspar David Friedrich created ethereal visions out of German landscapes, bathing his views in mysterious light and glowing colors.
Trained at the Academy in Copenhagen from the age of 20, Friedrich subsequently settled in Dresden, Germany. He remained there for the rest of his life, often traveling to other parts of the country, but never visiting Italy, as most other artists did. Particularly interested in depicting the effects of light, his landscapes usually feature haunting images of trees, hills, harbors, mists and other aspects of the northern German landscape, based on close observations of nature and his own spiritual interpretations. Initially producing topographical drawings in pencil and sepia wash, he took up oil painting when he was in his 30s.