William Blake's Heavenly Imagination

A dazzling exhibition at the Morgan Library celebrates the Romantic painter and poet’s mystical visions and mad obsessions. VIEW OUR GALLERY

William Blake, the eighteenth century poet, illustrator, engraver and mystic, worked from home but lived in his imagination. It was the place, he insisted, where “the eternal and the real meet.” Besieged for much of his life by visions of imaginary visitors such as the archangel Gabriel and Michelangelo, Blake’s imagination was the watering hole from which all his creative needs quenched their thirst.

The Morgan Library and Museum’s fall exhibition, William Blake: A New Heaven Is Begun, on view through January 3, 2010, is a comprehensive and varied retrospective of the fruits of Blake’s imagination. The show includes over 100 examples of Blake’s poems, engravings, watercolors, and illuminated books and is culled entirely from the Morgan’s private collection.

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Including two original copies of his most famous poem, The Tyger, one with color added by hand and one without, and one of the sixteen original copies of the celebrated illuminated book of poems, Songs of Innocence, the collection is regarded as one of the country’s finest. Begun by Pierpont Morgan in 1899 and continued by longtime museum director Charles Ryskamp, the inspired collection maps a deft chronology of Blake’s life and work.

Despite being known posthumously for his poetry and illustrations, during his lifetime Blake was primarily known as an engraver, the art form being the only one that earned him his meager living. He was known by most as Mr. Blake The Engraver, though by others as the crazy guy with visions.

Blake’s skill as an engraver is often over-looked as art-lovers tend to focus on the mystical and fantastical nature of his illuminated poems. However, the poet faithfully defended his livelihood, insisting that engraving was a true art. He famously said, “Painting is drawing on canvas and engraving is drawing on copper and nothing else.” He employed a number of techniques and steps in his engraving process ranging from relief etching to white-line engraving, monotype printing and hand finishing with pen and watercolor.

• Art Beast: The Best of Art, Photography, and DesignHis craftsmanship and skill with engraving are particularly interesting when viewed in contrast to the seemingly impulsive and mystical nature of his illustrations and writing. His art can often seem divinely inspired, the inspiration apparent in an instant demanding to be chronicled with immediacy before disappearing. But engraving is a painstaking and laborious art that requires patience, precision and lack of whim. At 46, Blake wrote, “I curse and bless Engraving alternately because it takes so much time and is so untractable, tho capable of such beauty and perfection.” But that tedium and intractability is hidden in the weed-like growth of poetry and illustrations that take center stage on the page.

Whether intentional or not, the show is curated in a similar spirit; a seeming dense forest of engraved plates, watercolored illustrations and illuminated poems, the one room exhibition is subtly but unmistakably aligned. Beckoning the innocent viewer to follow a path around the room, the exhibit is discreetly oriented thematically with a different theme or period addressed on each wall.