William Blake: Visionary

Edina Adam and Julian Brooks, with an essay by Matthew Hargraves

A richly illustrated, comprehensive introduction to the visionary British artist William Blake.

Celebrated for his boundless imagination and unique vision, William Blake (1757–1827) created some of the most striking and distinctive imagery in art, often combining his poetry and visual images on the page through innovative graphic techniques. He has proven an enduring inspiration to artists, musicians, poets, and performers worldwide and a fascinating enigma to generations of admirers. 

Featuring over 130 color images, this catalogue brings together many of Blake’s most iconic works. Organized by theme, it explores Blake’s work as a professional printmaker, his roles as both painter-illustrator and poet-painter, his relationship to the medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque artists that preceded him, and his legacy in the United States. It also examines his visionary prophetic books, including all eighteen plates of America a Prophecy. 

This volume was published to accompany an exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center October 17, 2023, through January 14, 2024.

A specialist in works on paper, Edina Adam is assistant curator of drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Julian Brooks is senior curator and head of the Department of Drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum and is the author of many books, most recently The Lure of Italy: Artists’ Views (Getty Publications, 2017) and Andrea del Sarto: The Renaissance Workshop in Action (Getty Publications, 2015). Matthew Hargraves is chief curator of art collections and head of collection information and access at the Yale Center for British Art. 

“Essential reading.”

—Elizabeth Savage, The Burlington Magazine

“Excellent catalog.”
—Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times

“Stunning catalogue. . . . This is bibliographic design at its best.”
—Luisa Calè, Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly

“Lavishly illustrated. . . . Recommended.”
—D. D. Schierenbeck, Choice

“The next best thing to an on-site tour of the exhibition and an armchair traveler's delight from cover to cover.”
—Midwest Book Review 

“William Blake: Visionary is a good introduction to a unique figure in the history of art.”
—Bondo Wyszpolski, Easy Reader News

168 pages
9 x 11 inches
135 color and 1 b/w illustration
ISBN 978-1-60606-642-3
hardcover

Getty Publications
Imprint: J. Paul Getty Museum

2020