Anne Gilchrist

“ I said "These things you call finished are not even begun: how can they be finished?"' Here Blake drew for a short time from the living figure, but early conceived a dislike to, and quickly relinquished, academic modes of study. 'Natural objects always did and now do weaken, deaden, and obliterate imagination in me,' he said in after life. ”

“ Blake's industry throughout life was unceasing, and the mass of work accomplished by the rare union of exhaustless patience with a fiery, restless, creative imagination exceeds belief (see catalogues by W. M. Rossetti in Gilchrist's Blake) . ”

“ She was sent to school, but ‘only to learn sewing, and prevent a too strict application to books.’ Matilda taught herself miniature painting, and many of her portraits possess much sweetness of expression and delicacy of finish; but from a total want of any training in art they are weakly drawn, and she was unable to achieve an enduring success. ”

“ Returning from a ramble over the hills round Dulwich, he said he had seen a tree filled with angels, bright wings bespangling every bough like stars: or, again, that he had beheld angelic figures walking amongst some haymakers; and only through his mother's intercession did he escape a flogging from his father, who regarded the story as a deliberate lie. As a boy, he perhaps believed these were supernatural visions: as a man, it must be gathered from his explicit utterances that he understood their true nature as mental creations. ”

“ Blake made his last move in 1820, to 3 Fountain Court, Strand, where, amid increasing poverty and neglect, he executed and engraved for Linnell those sublime 'Inventions to the Book of Job' on which his highest claim as an artist rests. And whilst they were in progress the same friend, himself still a struggling artist, commissioned a series of drawings from the 'Divina Commedia,' to be also engraved, paying him on account the two or three pounds a week necessary for subsistence. A hundred designs were sketched in, some finished, but only seven engraved and published in 1827. ”

“ Matilda had already published two small volumes of verse, ‘Elegies,’ 1797, and ‘Poems,’ 1808, which are poor enough; but in 1816 her ‘Lay of Marie’ achieved a considerable success. Charles Lamb, to whom the volume had been shown in manuscript, wrote: ‘Did I not ever love your verses? The domestic half will be a sweet heirloom in the family. 'Tis fragrant with cordiality. What friends you must have had or dreamed of having! and what a widow's cruse of heartiness you have doled. ”

“ Flaxman in 1800 introduced Blake to Hayley, who invited him to come and settle at Felpham while engraving the illustrations for 'Life of Cowper.' Here, in a cottage by the sea, he spent three years, during which he executed eighteen tempera heads of the poets for Hayley's library; a miniature of Cowper's cousin, Johnson; two very sweet designs to 'Little Tom the Sailor,' a broad-sheet ballad by Hayley; a series of illustrations to Hayley's 'Ballads on Animals,' besides more engraved books and drawings for Butts. ”

“ Blake now supported himself mainly by engraving for the booksellers. For Harrison's 'Novelists' Magazine' he engraved those early and beautiful designs by Stothard which first brought the latter into notice, viz. two illustrations to 'Don Quixote,' one to the 'Sentimental Journey,' one to 'David Simple,' one to 'Launcelot Greaves,' and three to 'Grandison.' Already he had made Stothard's acquaintance, who introduced him to Flaxman, soon to prove an influential and staunch friend. ”

“ Belonging to a large family she made strenuous efforts to turn her talents to practical account; and gathering together some of the fruits of her large miscellaneous historical reading she published, in 1804, a ‘Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of every Age and Country,’ which, though quite fragmentary and disproportioned, contains much entertaining matter, and is agreeably and often judiciously written. ”

“ For Blake's labours were drawing to a close. His strength had been for some time declining, but he worked on with the old ardour to within a few days of the end. 'I cannot think of death as more than the going out of one room into another,' he had said in speaking of Flaxman's death ”

“ The case was tried at Chichester, and Blake was acquitted. On his return he settled at 17 South Molton Street. Cromek, Blake's next employer, purchased of him that fine series of designs to Blair's 'Grave' by which he is most widely known. Never has the theme of death been handled in pictorial art with more elevation and beauty than in some of these, notably in 'Death's Door' and the 'Soul departing from the Body.' Fuseli, always a warm friend of Blake (paying him the naïve tribute of remarking that he was d——d good to steal from') , wrote a laudatory notice of the designs for the preface. ”

“ Four undated 'Sibylline Leaves, viz. 'The Laocoon',' 'Ghost of Abel,' 'On Homer's Poetry,' 'On Virgil.' 19. 'There is no Natural Religion' (eight? leaves with design) . 20. 'Outhoon,' of which there appears to be no copy in existence. 21. 'Tiriel,' first printed in W. M. Rossetti's 'Aldine British Poets.' 22. 'Ideas of Good and Evil,' from Blake's note-book, first printed in Gilchrist's 'Blake,' vol. ii. 23. Prose from the same, viz. 'Public Address' and 'Vision of the Last Judgment.' Reprints of Blake's works have appeared as follows: 'Songs of Innocence and Experience,' edit. ”