William Blake

Thomas Phillips's 1807 portrait of William Blake is one of the most important images of the visionary poet-painter, depicting him at forty-nine during the period when he was producing his most mature illuminated books. Blake's intense gaze and the slight upward turn of his head suggest the prophetic quality that contemporaries noted in his personality. Phillips was a Royal Academician who moved in the same artistic circles as Blake, and their portrait sitting produced an image of remarkable psychological presence. Blake was little known publicly during his lifetime, and this portrait documents the private man behind one of British Romanticism's most original imaginations.

Phillips's portrait captures Blake's remarkable eyes — described by contemporaries as having an almost supernatural intensity — with vivid directness. The warm palette and intimate scale create a sympathetic portrait that conveys the inner fire of one of Britain's most original creative minds.