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1700s Books Occult Religion

All 17 Visionary Prints From William Blake’s The Gates of Paradise – 1793

Last is first and first is last. This book of life and wonders is about the present, where all things are.

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 11, "I want! I want!"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 11, “I want! I want!”

The book was issued in 1793 as For Children: The Gates of Paradise by William Blake. It was reissued with a number of alterations and additions in 1818 with a new title, For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise. In it, we see that last is first and first is last. This book of life and wonders is about the present, where all things are. You just need to know where to look for them.

Blake saw things. As a child he saw a shining tree of angels and figures at his bedroom window. In later years, the old prophets and the painter Raphael came to him.

So when in 1787 he began to draw what would become 64 images,  and 17 etched seventeen onto copper plates, he could peer through the veils of perception. The book is influenced further by “emblem literature”, sixteenth and seventeenth century books that connect an allegorical symbol to an epigram or motto.

You can buy all prints of these wonderful images in the shop.

 

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 9, "Alas!"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 9, “Alas!”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 5, "Earth"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 5, “Earth”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 6, "Air"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 6, “Air”

You can buy all 17 of these wonderful images as prints in the shop.

 

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 12, "Help! Help!"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 12, “Help! Help!”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 13, "Aged Ignorance"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 13, “Aged Ignorance”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 7, “Fire”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 1, Frontispiece, "What is Man!"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 1, Frontispiece, “What is Man!”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 14, "'Does thy God O Priest take such vengeance as this?"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 14, “‘Does thy God O Priest take such vengeance as this?”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 15, "Fear & hope are -- Vision"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 15, “Fear & hope are — Vision”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 10, "My Son! my Son!"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 10, “My Son! my Son!”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 10, "My Son! my Son!"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 10, “My Son! my Son!”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 14, "'Does thy God O Priest take such vengeance as this?"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 14, “‘Does thy God O Priest take such vengeance as this?”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 8, “At length for hatching ripe he breaks the shell”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 3, “I found him beneath a Tree”

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 4, "Water"

For Children. The Gates of Paradise, Plate 4, “Water”

Buy wonderful images as prints in the shop.

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