For full disclosure, I chose a copy of this book to peruse digitally because it was free, and with as far as I knew an irreparable dislike of the subject. It would have to go some way to make me a convert, I thought. To that extent the book is a failure, partly because it has so very little academic writing in it. We get an introduction to the man, and it's more or less inferred that, in the ageless cycle of art from great heights to poor lows, Blake was continuing that movement while thinking he was providing a new height, and reacting to a previous low, when patently the opposite was true. "One must be born with a sympathy for [Blake's aesthetic]" someone once said, and that's something I wasn't (that and the heightened religiosity).

But just because he's not in my DNA to appreciate, I was still open to seeing more of his work, correcting a gaping lapse in my poor art knowledge. And this book there was a distinctive success. It's the catalogue to a major show by the Getty that the coronasniffles was threatening at the time I dealt with it, and really does provide a highly visual guide to the man's output, from pure – and very fine – engravings easily reproduced, to those that were hand-printed, and hand-washed in watercolour he used to accompany Milton, Dante, the Bible and so much more. Again I would hold this up as being low on words – other catalogues have some semblance of the information panels that would be hung with each art work, and we get none of that here. So for an artist who surely needs more explanation that most, all we get is what equates to about half a dozen gallery-introducing standees, the introduction itself, and a specialist-only resume of how Blake got to be so collected so avidly by American art lovers and bibliophiles.

So don't come here to learn much about what you're witnessing, but the productions of the art are top notch, and if the visuals and the collection that made up that aesthetic are what you require, then this is strongly recommended. I did see some interesting images, and he did more comely women than his boggle-eyed norm had me expect, but I remained a sceptic.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the fascinating life and works of William Blake in this book written as an accompaniment to the upcoming exhibition at the J Paul Getty Museum. Arranged in a clear order, this book is easy to follow and combines his brilliance as an artist as well as a poet. Packed with information, this is a wonderful introduction to the tremendous talent of William Blake. The plates are outstanding and there are many. Thank you to Edina Adam and Julian Brooks, Net Galley, and Getty Publications for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a primer on William Blake and is published in conjunction with a major Blake retrospective to take place at the Getty Center beginning July 2020 (hopefully). While the main attraction of a book like this is a chance to experience or revisit Blake's works--ranging from little-seen sketches to selections from some of the best extant copies of his books--it also serves to commemorate the exhibition (via a catalog), and inform through a series of essays.

I found the essay by Matthew Hargreaves, on Blake's reception in America and the history of purchasing, curating, and collecting Blake's work in America to be especially rewarding. Despite the elements of Blake's art are that are quintessentially English (or even stubbornly insular), he has long appealed to viewers around the world, among them American transcendentalists and magnates of industry with a mania for collection. A good place to begin a deep-dive in Blake's singular way of seeing.

As usually, the Paul Getty publications are of high standards, so is this book about William Blake too. In addition to the biographical knowledge, in the chapters from various authors the reader have the possibility of looking at this artist from different points of view as painter, illustrator, printmaker, creator of myths and so on, receiving information that I think is not possible to achieve in a so complete form from other single resources.

Very cool to see a bunch of Blake's work accompanied by snippets of biography and historical context. Wish I could go see the exhibit!

A fantastic collection of William Blake's work and a broad explanation of his work as well. I'll definitely be getting this one.

An essential art history read! And a walk through multiple legendary museums at once!

William Blake is given great inspection in this Getty Museum publication, with volumes of tidbits you won't find walking around the gallery, and pieces shown herein you won't find easily anywhere. many pieces have never been seen in the US. Here is a remarkable collaboration of the Getty along with Tate in London, and also Yale Center for British Art, the Huntington Library collections, and a Blake scholar (Mr. Robert Essick) -- When will you have a chance to visit all these places in succession *and* catch Blake works on display? (Answer: Never!) This book is a small miracle.

Reading a digital advanced reader review copy (so I cannot comment on paper quality nor size of the color prints of artwork contained, but I expect them to be very good), the artwork appears lush and rich in its full glory. His full life is examined and his trends given full measure. Anecdotes and stories abound alongside the art they inspired. But what is most interesting to me is the probing into his thought process, why he focused on different subject matter, and then incredibly fascinating is the way his work caught its lifeline after his death, in the United States when it had floundered elsewhere, and the spiritualist groups that saved it. This is relayed in detail, and demonstrates the tough road that even masterful art can sometimes be fated to walk.

The most striking wish William Blake declared was his desire that his poetry and art created together should remain together, they were a whole creation. This book reunites what they could, showing some of his work with poetry even literally upon the work itself, not simply alongside. I've wondered if any artist did this in my art ponderings, and my question has been answered beautifully.

Mr. Blake believed that all art students should copy and copy and copy again the masters. He demonstrated that over and over in his work, and the result was a life culmination in advanced age of working on the drawings of Dante's Divine Comedy. He made himself great, even if that was not recognized in his living lifetime, with perhaps that glimmer only at the end with the Dante work and the young artist group that adored him and promoted him. He did have patrons, sometimes only barely, and their gift to us is all these centuries later is that his work can be seen, and here can be seen in a new way, with text and stories and pieces brought together for perhaps the first time since he lived.

So here is a book for historians and art aficionados to treasure, and for artists to now study, drawings to learn to copy, a man made master by his own hand.

I appreciated this book so much that I pre-ordered a print copy. Thank you to NetGalley and to Getty Publishing for the chance to peer into these gorgeous pages and take a walk into many museums at once. I hope for many more museum walks as this from Getty Publishing.

A fantastic work on the life and artistry of William Blake. Not initially too familiar with his artwork, having read the book I'm sold and a new fan.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

I really enjoyed this book. I found it very didactic and enjoyable. It is very well and clearly organised with a structure that makes sense, and the explanations that precede the illustrations are concise and informative. I have only studied Blake from a literary perspective, reading his poetry separated from his art, which I've learnt is not as he intended it to be read, so the book's review of Blake's artistic career filled this gap. Learning about Blake's peculiar insight when designing and completing this work was much more useful than a comment from a literary historian on the value of the prints would have been: he used as a reference not the famous works by the best-known artists everybody else was using but their drafts for the same work, thus "deliberately misconstruing the past" (2020:26), or, as I would suggest, challenging the canon and sticking with his artistic principles. Furthermore, I thought the chapter on Blake and the United States was very compelling. It provides a history to the migration (I'm being generous here) of Blake manuscripts/art to the great art collections in America, between the 19-20th centuries, while also providing a very brief but insightful sociohistorical context for this mass "migration" of artistic material from Britain to the US. I would absolutely recommend this book for any art lover and I will similarly be recommending my university's library to purchase it for our students.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

William Blake's art work is unsettling and often strange but captivating at the same time.
This book is a beautiful display of his work but I found the writing parts quite boring and tedious in many parts.
This book would have been much better with only interesting pieces of knowledge about him and his works of art and in shorter bursts through the book.

I have always been fascinated by Willian Blake's paintings, so I opened this book with great anticipation. Last year I had to make a short trip to London (for work) and a highlight was that I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Tate including the special section Blake's works. The illustrations in the book didn't disappoint, there are a great number of his fascinating etches and water colours. The imagination and general weirdness of Blake is simply amazing and it was a treat to see that revealed here.
I was less enchanted by the text. The chapter on American collectors was downright boring and on several occasions it was irritatingly superficial. The book mentions repeatedly that he had an exceptionally good technique as a printer and in one place described the technique. Unfortunately, rather than actually giving the details, the writer stays on the surface with phrases like 'acid-resistant substance'. Likewise, his 'personal mysticism' is mentioned a number of times, but nowhere does the text go into details of what his actual beliefs were. I would have loved to have had more information on that.
In summary, excellent reproduction of his Blake's wonderful paintings, but the writing was dissapointing.

An expansive introduction to William Blake and his visionary art, with images and information presented in a clear, accessible format.