When was the ghost of the flea created?
1819–1820
The Ghost of a Flea/Created
Where is the Ghost of a Flea?
the Tate Gallery, London
The Ghost of a Flea is a miniature painting by the English poet, painter and printmaker William Blake, held in the Tate Gallery, London.
Who painted ghost of a flea?
William Blake
The Ghost of a Flea/Artists
What type of visions did William Blake have?
Blake, the Mystic Blake was perhaps the most spiritual and mystical of all the English poets. He recorded having visions of angels and said that he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, Mary, and various historical figures. At age four he had a vision of God looking at him through a window.
What was William Blake’s personal life like?
He was born in Soho, London, where he lived most of his life, and was son to a hosier and his wife, both Dissenters. Blake’s early ambitions lay not with poetry but with painting and at the age of 14, after attending drawing school, he was apprenticed to James Basire, engraver.
What is the little black thing in the snow?
The first line of the first stanza, “a little black thing among the snow” invokes the image of a dead bird, or something lying strewn and forgotten. A little black thing is something not immediately identified as a child, and the fact that it is black means it was dirty and forgotten.
Why is William Blake considered a visionary?
William Blake was a visionary artist and poet who expressed his ideas in words and images, which he combined in his rare, hand-coloured and hand-printed books. Poems such as The Chimney Sweeper and The Tyger are among his best-loved and from his poem Milton are the words to Jerusalem, set to music by Hubert Parry.
Who was William Blake’s wife?
Catherine Blakem. 1782–1827
William Blake/Wife
In 1781 Blake fell in love with Catherine Sophia Boucher (1762–1831), the pretty, illiterate daughter of an unsuccessful market gardener from the farm village of Battersea across the River Thames from London.
What is the best biography of William Blake?
Published to rave reviews in England, Ackroyd’s moving and luminous biography of William Blake (1757-1827) serves as an ideal point of entry into the poet and artist’s visionary world.
Why William Blake is important?
William Blake was a poet and a painter who was born in Soho in London in 1757. He is an important figure of the Romantic age. As well as painting Blake also made books of his poems which he illustrated. One of his most famous works is a book called Songs of Innocence and Experience.
What did William Blake teach his wife?
Blake taught Catherine to read and write (a little), to draw, to colour his designs and prints, to help him at the printing press, and to see visions as he did. She believed implicitly in his genius and his visions and supported him in everything he did with charming credulity.
What did William Blake do for a living?
In 1784, he set up a print shop, but within a few years the business floundered and for the rest of his life Blake eked out a living as an engraver and illustrator.
Who is the artist of the ghost of a flea?
The Ghost of a Flea is a miniature painting by the English poet, painter and printmaker William Blake, held in the Tate Gallery, London.
How big is the ghost of a flea?
The Ghost of a Flea is a miniature painting by the English poet, painter and printmaker William Blake, held in the Tate Gallery, London. Measuring only 8.42 by 6.3 inches (21.4 by 16.0 centimetres), it is executed in a tempera mixture with gold, on a mahogany -type tropical hardwood panel. [1]
What did William Blake mean by the ghost of a flea?
The blood-drinking household flea, said Blake, is in fact the physical shape taken by the souls of men who are so bloodthirsty that they are providentially confined to the size and form of insects. The ghost is gorging on a bowl of blood. This is Blake’s ultimate critique of the English portrait.
What kind of foil does ghost of a flea use?
Ghost of a Flea is distinguished by its innovative use of gold leaf. Beneath the curtain folds, the flesh of the flea and bright stars, Blake placed a thin foil of “white” gold which he made from gold-silver alloy. He then used a brush and powdered gold foil made into paint to colour much of the minute detail.