William Blake

A religious visionary and mystic, William Blake was acknowledged, after the fact, as one of the first leading figures of the Romantic movement. In his lifetime, however, he was viewed as an eccentric, at best. Blake began having visions of angels and prophets as a child; he was also writing poetry by age 12 and teaching himself art by studying the Renaissance masters. At 15, he started an apprenticeship in engraving; seven years later, in 1779, he started studying art at London's Royal Academy, despite his contempt for the loathing the academy's president, Joshua Reynolds. In ...