Samuel Palmer Profile picture
Nov 28, 2022 8 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Born #OTD in 1757: English poet, painter, printmaker and mentor of the Shoreham Ancients…William Blake
Creator of Jerusalem and The Tyger he is considered one of the greatest artists and poets in the English language. But what do we really know about him? 🧵1/8
#WilliamBlake
William Blake was born on Broad Street, Golden Square, London to a middle-class family third of 7 children. James Blake his father was a hosier. Will never attended school, educated at home by his mother. The Blakes were Moravian Dissenters 2/8
Blake’s parents knew his headstrong temperament as a boy would best be enrolled in drawing classes as he showed interest in art. He read avidly and also made early explorations into poetry. 4th August 1772 at 15 he was apprenticed to engraver James Basire 3/8
In 1778, at 21 Blake became a student at the Royal Academy near the Strand. There rebelling against the school's first president, Joshua Reynolds Blake came to resent Reynolds' attitude toward art as Blake preferred the Classical influences of Michelangelo and Raphael 4/8 Self portrait by William Blake 1790
On 18th August 1782 at 25 he married 20 year old Catherine Boucher St. Mary's Church, Battersea. He taught her to read and had a long loving 45 year marriage often calling her his Shadow of Delight 💛✨ 5/8
Between 1800 and 1803 Blake lived in the Sussex village of Felpham having composed his prophetic and famous work Jerusalem. Eventually worried by an impending trial he returned to London close to Tyburn (Marble Arch) 6/8
In 1818 he was introduced to John Linnell. Through Linnell he met Samuel Palmer, and his friends a group of artists calling themselves the Shoreham Ancients. They shared Blake's belief in a spiritual and artistic New Age modelled on Medieval rural ideals 7/8
Blake forsook material gain worked constantly until the day he died 12th August 1827. 3 days later Ancient George Richmond writes to Samuel Palmer “Just before he died His Countenance became fair. His eyes Brighten and He burst out into Singing of the things he saw in Heaven” 8/8

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Samuel Palmer

Samuel Palmer Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(