William Blake (1757-1827, English) William Blake was an English poet, printmaker, and painter known for his mystical works. Deeply religious, Blake’s works were based on visions of angels, spirits, and demons he had since childhood. Though much of his oeuvre defies conventional categorizations, many of his paintings are based on the works of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Albrecht Dürer. Blake is perhaps best remembered for his poem The Tyger. “In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors,” he once said. Born on November 28, 1757 in London, United Kingdom, he studied at the Henry Pars Drawing Academy as a youth and went on to work as an engraver’s assistant. Blake made use of his knowledge of intaglio engraving for his own books as well as an edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy, which was commissioned by the artist John Linnell. The artist died on August 12, 1827 in Westminster, United Kingdom. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.