{"id":1718,"date":"2009-10-25T18:31:39","date_gmt":"2009-10-25T18:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.internationaldiplomat.com\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2009-10-25T18:31:39","modified_gmt":"2009-10-25T18:31:39","slug":"william-blake-forerunner-romanticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/?p=1718","title":{"rendered":"William Blake: Forerunner of Romanticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of this English painter, poet, prophet and visionary, Theatre of Eternal Values performed William Blake\u2019s Divine Humanity in London in November 2007, the first ever theatre group to have performed Blake\u2019s prophetic books on stage. It was the celebrated centrepiece of the Blake 250 Festival in London\u2019s West End.
\nIn September 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland, Theatre of Eternal Values performed a condensed version of the play presenting key moments in Blake\u2019s life. Devised as a multi-media touring production with an international group of actors Eternity in an Hour featured original songs, live music, contemporary dance and full colour images of Blake\u2019s paintings.
\nThe play confronts the time-worn dilemma of \u2018Why, if there is an omniscient, omnipotent God, is there suffering in the world? What is the purpose of this life?\u2019 Blake provides his own prophetic answers and pushes human understanding to its limits to reveal the spiritual essence of man.
\nWilliam Blake (1757-1827)<\/strong>\u00a0He was born at 28a Broad Street, Soho, on 28 November 1757, and he continued to live and work in London for most of his life. He was an engraver, printer (he invented a new technique of printing known as \u2018relief etching\u2019), painter, poet, prophet and visionary.
\nFrom his early childhood, he saw visions of angels and conferred with the spirits of great personalities from ancient times. After dying in 1787, his deceased brother Robert became Blake\u2019s \u2018spirit guide\u2019 and inspiration for him throughout his prophetic life. Blake\u2019s marriage to Catherine was long and happy. They regularly worked side by side in his workshop, but had no children. She outlived him by four years and worked hard to safeguard his spiritual and artistic legacy.
\nHe lived through an era of great political and social upheaval: the American War of Independence (1775-83), the French Revolution (1789), the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815) and the far-reaching social impact of the Industrial Revolution (1760s-1840s). Moved by the social injustices of industrial England, Blake captured the mood of his times through his paintings and poetry. Greatly misunderstood by the greater part of eighteenth century English society, Blake is today recognised as a leading English poet and artist, confounding the intellect with works that appeal directly to the human spirit.
\nHe prophesised the coming of the Golden Age through the awakening of Divinity within human beings (Divine Humanity) and dedicated his life to the liberation of mankind from the \u2018mind-forged manacles\u2019 of its conditioning, materialism and rational ego.
\nContentious and controversial during his life time, an exhibition of William Blake\u2019s paintings in 1809 was mocked by critics. A review in The Examiner newspaper dismissed his work as that of an \u2018unfortunate lunatic\u2019. Fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge hailed him as a mystic and a genius.
\nTowards the end of his life he finally received the full respect and understanding of a group of promising young artists called \u2018The Shoreham Ancients\u2019, who included painters Samuel Palmer and George Richmond. Surrounded by his admirers, he died on 12 August 1827 at 3 Fountain Court near the banks of the River Thames in London.
\nForerunner of Romanticism<\/strong>
\nPoet, painter, prophet and visionary his poems, the texts of which he engraved and illustrated, include Songs of Innocence (1798), Songs of Experience (1794), various \u201cProphetic Books\u201d, Milton (1808) and Jerusalem (1820). His watercolours for The Book of Job (1826) and Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy (1827) were inspired by his visions and engravings in the style of Michelangelo.
\nBlake\u2019s poems mark the beginning of Romanticism and the rejection of the Age of Enlightenment. His watercolours and engravings, like his writings, were only fully appreciated after his death.
\nRecognised today as one of the greatest artists Britain has every produced, William Blake spoke out against the terrible human cost of materialism and in every aspect of his inspirational works expressed the indomitable power of the human spirit.\u00a0\u201cTo see a world in a grain of sand And a Heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an Hour.\u201d<\/i>
\nWilliam Blake, from Auguries of Innocence, 1803.
\nIta Marguet, October 2009<\/i><\/strong>
\nNote: Acknowledgement is given to all sources used in preparation of this text including Howard Productions programme for Eternity in an Hour performed in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, 18 September 2009.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of this English painter, poet, prophet and visionary, Theatre of Eternal Values performed William Blake\u2019s Divine Humanity in London in November 2007, the first ever theatre group to have performed Blake\u2019s prophetic books on stage. It was the celebrated centrepiece of the Blake 250 Festival in London\u2019s
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