William Blake was born in 1757 in Soho, London to a middle-class family of 7. Only attending school for just long enough to learn to read and write, after he was homeschooled by his mother. From an early age, he took a liking to draw and was extremely fascinated with literature with the greatest appeal to religion. Throughout his young adult life, he worked as an engraver and became a professional at the age of 21. Here he was exposed to a lot of work involving religion and church but more importantly the Gothic style he became very accustomed to in his later works. Following this, he attended the Royal Academy where he often rebelled against the president of the academy at the time. He submitted only six works during his six years attending the academy, and most wherein hypocrisy of the president. Later in his life, he married a woman named Catherine who helped him throughout his hardest times. He died in 1827 alongside his loving wife and working tirelessly on a painting.

Blake is considered to be a romantic artist, as he was painting during the romantic period, and almost all of his art draws inspiration from religion. He was a devoted Christian and very much displayed his love for God and beyond in his works. However, religious scenes and lovely depictions often were not his focus. Blake took a heavy liking to renditions of purgatory, as a lot of his works come from Paradise Lost, by John Milton, or the very well known Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri. Picking scenes and displaying the torture of the circles of hell, or travels of the protagonist were most of his work lies. His poetry works often drew inspiration from both the American and bloody French revolutions, however not much of his art followed suit.

Unlike most religious art, Blake’s art was very much focused on the negative and bleaker side of the coin. Much of this is due to how religion was perceived during that day and age as opposed to its view later on. Religion during this time was often based on the drive to be a decent person in order for you to go up to heaven and avoid endlessly punishment in one of the circles of hell. In a sense, you understand and perceive religion as to always be the sinner and need repentance. Blake believed that God was the judge, jury, and executioner of your life and that Jesus represented only merely as a balancing factor in your life. Often in his work, he liked to draw pain and hurt, or renditions of the devil as a way to almost reinforce this idea to be a good Christian or you will end up suffering endlessly.

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