William Blake
1959 (published 1964)
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
wood engraving in black on vellum
Dimensions
image: 6.9 × 6 cm (2 11/16 × 2 3/8 in.) sheet: 14.6 x 10.8 cm (5 3/4 x 4 1/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1980.45.104.c
Art Historical Context
Behold Leonard Baskin's striking *William Blake* (1959, published 1964), compact wood engraving in black ink on vellum, measuring just 6.9 × 6 cm for the image itself. This intimate print from the National Gallery of Art's Rosenwald Collection the essence of the Romantic visionary poet, painter, and printmaker William Blake, whom Baskin deeply admired. As a mid-20th-century American artist, sculptor, and book illustrator, Baskin channeled his fascination with literary giants into powerful, humanistic portraits like this one. Wood engraving, Baskin's chosen medium, is a meticulous relief print...
About the Artist
Leonard Baskin
Leonard Baskin (1922–2000) was a towering figure in American art, renowned for his monumental sculptures, powerful woodcuts, and intricate book illustrations that grappled with the human condition's darker facets. Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to a family of rabbis, he moved to Brooklyn's Jewish Orthodox Williamsburg neighborhood at age seven. Vowing to become a sculptor at 15, Baskin apprent...