Wordless Wednesday: William Blake, Pity, 1795

I <3 William Blake. He is both a poet and an artist from the Romantic age in the late 1700s and early 1800s which is one of my favorite time periods in art history. Through their creative endeavors, Romantic artists celebrated emotion, passion, imagination, nature, literature, art, and more. I find Romantic art to be incredibly inspiring.

Here is William Blake’s Pity for Wordless Wednesday.

William Blake, Pity, 1795

William Blake is not necessarily a great topic for Wordless Wednesday as he is all about words. He was a poet and much of his visual art was created as illustrations for literary works. This painting is inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

William Shakespeare, Macbeth

For more about this painting, visit the Tate’s blog.

What do you think? How could you include this work in your classroom?

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