William Blake

Biography

William Blake (1757–1827) was an English poet, engraver, and painter whose visionary Romantic art rejected Classicist norms to pursue prophetic, scriptural, and personal mythologies. Around 1800–1806 he created a large cycle of biblical watercolors for his patron Thomas Butts, within which the Red Dragon sheets are central statements of his apocalyptic imagination [3][4].

Themes in Their Work

Eros vs. agape (lust vs. charity)Tyranny & oppressionResistance & protestThe double/doppelgängerChristian iconographyThe sublime & aweProphecy & vision

Featured Artworks

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun by William Blake

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun

William Blake (c. 1805)

In The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, William Blake pits <strong>radiant innocence</strong> against <strong>predatory tyranny</strong>. A bat‑winged dragon with ramlike horns plunges from a stormed sky as the woman, haloed in light with great golden, heart‑shaped wings, lifts open palms to meet the assault. Blake’s high‑contrast watercolor turns the tableau into a visionary contest of <strong>light versus darkness</strong> <sup>[1]</sup>.