A Persisting Visionary

Abstract

From 1818, Blake enjoyed a time of increasing serenity. The end of the war no doubt assisted this: in previous years the struggle against Napoleon had not only offered support for the anti-Jacobin movement, but led to a strongly conservative mood in politics and art that thrust work such as Blake’s into the background and covertly fuelled his resent¬ment. Although there seems to have been no open breach, moreover, he had no longer been seeing Flaxman and Fuseli with the frequency that had marked their former acquaintance. Now, however, as art became fashionable again, there was more sympathy for innovative ideas.