The Blake Society Annual General Meeting takes place on Wednesday 17 January on zoom, followed by In Search of Paradise: William Blake at Old Wyldes, a talk by David Mullin on Blake, Samuel Palmer and the Ancients:
To celebrate the publication of Louisa Albani’s latest pamphlet, on which he collaborated, David Mullin will explore the period towards the end of Blake’s life when he was working on his Job and Dante illustrations.
It was a time when he was befriended by a group of young artists who called themselves The Ancients and who became profoundly influenced by him. These included the portrait painter George Richmond, printmaker Edward Calvert and landscape artist Samuel Palmer. One of the locations the group met was at the house of artist and Blake patron John Linnell, who had moved out of London to a house, now called Old Wyldes, in Hampstead. Blake and Palmer would walk to the house together and it was there Palmer met his future wife Hannah Linnell. The group assembled at Old Wyldes was a curious mix of older, established artists, their pupils and friends. It is apposite that Blake was working on his Dante illustrations at the time, as he became a kind of guide to the younger artists, helping them develop their practise and providing them with different ways of seeing their world, passing on his visionary inspiration at the end of his life.
It was a time when he was befriended by a group of young artists who called themselves The Ancients and who became profoundly influenced by him. These included the portrait painter George Richmond, printmaker Edward Calvert and landscape artist Samuel Palmer. One of the locations the group met was at the house of artist and Blake patron John Linnell, who had moved out of London to a house, now called Old Wyldes, in Hampstead. Blake and Palmer would walk to the house together and it was there Palmer met his future wife Hannah Linnell. The group assembled at Old Wyldes was a curious mix of older, established artists, their pupils and friends. It is apposite that Blake was working on his Dante illustrations at the time, as he became a kind of guide to the younger artists, helping them develop their practise and providing them with different ways of seeing their world, passing on his visionary inspiration at the end of his life.
David Mullin is an archaeologist and writer who lives in West Yorkshire. He is in the process of finishing a book about Samuel Palmer.
The AGM starts at 7.30. Registration is free and tickets can be booked via The Blake Society website.