Nude Figure Reaching Down Between Rocks c. 1800

William Blake made this pencil sketch called 'Nude Figure Reaching Down Between Rocks' sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century in Britain. Blake was a radical artist and poet who developed his own mythology, often critical of institutional religion and political authority. Here, a nude figure is awkwardly positioned between rocks, reaching down towards the ground. The sketch is simple, but the figure’s straining pose suggests struggle or conflict. Blake's art often opposed the rigid social and artistic norms of his time, so he was never part of the Royal Academy. He favoured spiritual imagination over the rationalism of the Enlightenment. To understand Blake fully, we need to look at his illustrated books, like 'Songs of Innocence and Experience.' They show how he combined text and image to challenge the status quo. His art reminds us that artistic meaning always emerges from a specific historical and institutional context.