William Blake’s Art of Words and Pictures

Imagine opening a book and finding that its words grow among curling vines, clouds, and tiny figures. The poems and pictures seem to belong together. For William Blake, they did. He developed a way to print them on the same page, making each book a blend of writing and visual art.

Blake was born in London, England, on November 28, 1757. As a young man, he trained as an engraver, learning to cut designs into metal plates for printing. He also wrote poetry and made drawings. Instead of keeping these talents separate, Blake found a way to bring them together.

In Blake’s time, books were often made by printing words and pictures separately. For the words, a printer could arrange individual metal letters into lines. Pictures could be printed from engraved plates. Blake used a different process for many of his own books. It became known as illuminated printing, a name that recalls the decorated pages of handmade books from long ago.

First, Blake prepared a smooth copper plate. He used a special liquid to draw and write directly on its surface. The liquid protected the copper underneath it. Next, he placed the plate in acid, a strong chemical that ate away the exposed copper. The protected lines and letters remained raised above the rest of the surface.