The exhibition acknowledges the vital presence of Blake’s wife Catherine throughout his life and work. She offered both practical assistance and became an unacknowledged hand in the production of his engravings and illuminated books. His art and poetry began to develop in original ways following their marriage in 1782 and at the time, Catharine was illiterate. She learnt to read and write with her husband and eventually in time, became a printmaker in her own right.

 
After years of obscurity, Blake experienced a burst of creativity in the last ten years of his life. In 1818 he met a younger, business savvy artist, John Linnell. Together with fellow artists Samuel Palmer and John Varley, Linnell provided Blake employment, friendship and a new sense of recognition. Buoyed by the material and support, Blake produced some of his best work – including his most ambitious illuminated book Jerusalem. The exhibition also closes with The Ancient of Days 1827, a frontispiece for an edition of Europe: A Prophecy, completed only days before the artist’s death.
 
Blake spent his final years living in modest accommodation with Catharine in Foundation Court, off the Strand. For the younger and upcoming artists around him, he represented an ideal of creative integrity and spiritual authenticity. Their memories of him have been crucial in shaping our perceptions of the artist today.