William Blake's Great Red Dragon

Yesterday, November the 28th, was the birthday of the visionary artist and poet, William Blake.

Here are two of a series of watercolours Blake produced to illustrate the Bible, in this case specifically the Book Of Revelations. Just to confuse matters the painting above is titled The Great Red Dragon And The Woman Clothed In Sun, while the one below is called The Great Red Dragon And The Woman Clothed With The Sun ( italics mine ).

The paintings are referenced in Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon and its two film adaptations, the wonderful Manhunter and the totally superfluous remake Red Dragon.

Jerusalem by William Blake

I quoted a couple of lines from "Jerusalem" in an earlier post but here's a fuller version, illustrated by Breughel. Today, it is sung as a hymn in British churches ( even at our wedding! ) but it was originally a bitter attack on repression and a plea for deliverance from outdated thinking.

For those who don't know of William Blake, he was a poet, painter, engraver, visionary ( literally - he saw angels at the bottom of his garden ), and religious iconoclast. And for an eighteenth-century Englishman his politics were amazingly progressive: he spoke out in favour of equality of the sexes, he opposed slavery and, although religious, he attacked organised religion ie the Church Of England. He also supported the French and American revolutions, a dangerous stance at the time.

I read Blake's Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience at A-Level, and his work made a lasting impression on me. His was a unique talent which, as usual, was barely appreciated in his own lifetime.

( This one's for Mickey Glitter. )