William Blake

More than a century-and-a-half after his death, Blake remains a remarkable and controversial figure. Equally gifted as poet and painter, he produced work as arresting for its beauty as for its strangeness. For some he is an inspiring genius, a source of creativity and insight; for others he is an unsettling eccentric. William Vaughan explores the contradictions of character that stand in the way of an easy understanding of the artist's work.