William Blake: The Red-Flag Dragon!!!!

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0:11This is Raquel and Chelsea, and you're listening to Baroque Bitches.

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1:27I'm Chelsea. I'm Raquel. And we're gonna get into a big one today. I am so excited. Oh my god, he's so perfect for having- Is William Blake, like, such a slut? Or am I just, like, maybe- Okay, we'll get into it. He's got- He's got it. It's all in his head, really. It's all going on in his head, really. I mean, good for him. So this has been an artist that I've been obsessed with since a very fun, very fucked

1:58up movie. It's actually a book, and then it turns into a movie, whatever. Ralph Fiennes. Ralph Fiennes. Fiennes. Fiennes. Hot villain guy. Hot villain, creepy, sadistic, totally juicy hot icon, plays a twisted serial killer slash love interest in the Silence of the Lambs prequel, Red Dragon. Red Dragon. That movie just, like, messed me up. It was so confusing.

2:30Do I love Ralph Fiennes, or do I hate Ralph Fiennes? I like him. Do I love Anthony Hopkins, or do I hate Anthony Hopkins? Oh, I like Anthony Hopkins. It's like, it's so tough. I'm so morally conflicted. He is also obsessed with our boy today. So much so that he gets a giant tattoo of our boy's artwork in the movie. On his back. Yeah. It's good. Iconic back scene of Ralph Fiennes' back. Oh, she can't see it. She's blind. She can't see it. She can't see it. So this one is good, especially if you're a photographer. There's definitely, like, hot darkroom stuff happening.

3:01I always wanted that in photography class. I was hoping I was going to get a hot darkroom scene. Why isn't somebody coming up from behind and just making out with my neck? I was, like, way too frustrated in the darkroom. Yeah, you feel, like, sexy. I was yelling. I was not cute in there. Photo process is not for you. It's not for me. Not for me. Not for me. It is a good one, though, for Halloween, so get into it. Yeah, that's true. Yes. And today, I'm doing my costume today. Oh, my God.

3:31I'm going to be here. Last minute mama. Last minute eyeball. Last minute eyeball. I have all the things. I just haven't put it together yet. So I, like, realized today, I'm like, my jellyfish costume is falling apart because, you know, I got, like, those, it's like that Mylar paper backdrop thing. Like the shiny paper. Yeah. And it's just, like, breaking off left and right. And it's pouring down rain, freezing outside. So, well, we will persevere.

4:04Yeah. That'll be the theme of tonight's trick or treat. You'll figure it out. You'll figure it out. Or you could go as the fisherman, maybe, or something. Or, like, wear a fisherman. Or wear, like, a sailor-looking thing. I don't know. Something nautical-looking. I don't get too much into my jellyfish costume. You gotta do jellyfish. You gotta do jellyfish. Speaking of Halloween, it's our Baroque bitch-iversary. It's so many important dates for you because it's your wedding anniversary. It's my anniversary. It's the BB anniversary. We're going to the Queen Mary, so I'll let you guys know about that if I see any hauntings.

4:38We're definitely looking for ghosts, obviously. And, like, also getting drunk and stuff. And, yeah, we'll hopefully be eyeballs that, yes, tomorrow. You got this. Hopefully we'll be eyeballs. Hopefully we'll be eyeballs. My sweet kitten. I'm sorry. They always have to, like, be by me when I'm doing anything. They love you. So if you have cats, you know. As soon as you said, we're fine. They were sleeping. They were totally fine. And now they're all over me. I bet you Willie and Blake likes cats.

5:09Or liked cats. Oh, I bet. So we might as well get into it. We might as well visualize.

5:19I worked really hard on this. Oh, my God. I'm so excited. Because I have a little poem in the style of our boy today. Oh, my God. How cute. Yeah. So let's visualize. Let's visualize.

5:43The sun sinks into the black abyss while I try to sneak in one last kiss. Say goodbye to the world we knew, for darkness lurks in the shadows of blue. Screams begin as the world opens. Then a thunderous roar. The dragon has woken. Oh, behemoth of burning nights.

6:13Demolishes any last speck of light. There's no hope for the remaining specters. As I ponder, how will all this affect her? We run, knowing that the end is near, for the monster feeds on fear. Where will we go when time is done? No more moon and no more sun. No more love. No more fun. No more God. For evil has won. What? Ah! What? It is so scary.

6:44Ah! Which brings us to our gossip topic, William Blake, the great red flag dragon. Oh, my God. Ah! Ah! Ah!

6:58Oh, hello there, you beautiful creatures of the night. Looks like you have an insatiable lust for the Baroque Bitches podcast and are dying to eat our brains. Well, you're in luck. Get a lot more of our juicy brains during Spookfest happening now on Patreon. From haunted museums to cursed objects, ghost stories, behind the screams content, and more. Become one of us. One of us.

7:29By going to patreon.com slash baroquebpodcast or clicking the link on our website, baroquebpodcast.com or clicking the link on our Instagram at baroque.b.podcast. Thank you for your undying support. We couldn't do any of this spooky stuff without you. We love you to death.

7:55Yes, more rapture lore. Okay, we've talked about rapture talk a little bit in our Patreon. I've gone down the hole. The rapture rabbit hole. Yep, you know about my obsession with the rapture and rapture talk, which is not rapture talk, but like rapture TikTok. And if you aren't chronically online like I am, the rapture is a thing again. And now it's on TikTok. Every few years, people with religious psychosis think Jesus is coming to take the faithful to heaven. And even though in fucking Matthew, it says only God will know the day, you guys.

8:31Like it says it in your book that you love so much. And yes, September 23rd or 24th has passed already. And unfortunately, all of us got left behind. And our boy today would have ate all this shit right up. So we might as well get into it. A-S-H. Sex. Location. Who are you? Where are you? How old are you? What's going on? What's going on with you? What's your Zodiac sign? We need to know.

9:02We need to know. William Blake. Yeah, no middle name. Just William Blake. Was born November 28th, 1757 in Gaulian, London, England. and that makes him the sexiest son of the Zoniac Sagittarius. Yay, another Sag. We love a Sag. You're unhinged. We ponder. We're questioning everything around us. What is life? What is art? What is love? We're super emotional.

9:35Remember a fire sign? We're ruled by Jupiter. We'll tell you exactly what we're thinking, even if it hurts. But if you tell us that same shit, we'll cry. Look out. We'll cry. How dare you? How dare you? So our sensitive, fiery artist poet, William, is a perfect Sag. Now, before we get into our boy, let's get into this girl, London. London. You sound like you're from London. Sorry. We've talked about London.

10:05It's haunted the whole place. Londoners, give us your ghost stories. We know you have them. And he's not only living in London, he's living in Soho. Ooh, today. Cute. Trendy. It's so cute. Today, Soho is a cute, quirky, hella gay, artsy town where all the cool kids hang. The name actually comes from, okay, this is weird. The name comes from a 16th century hunting cry, Soho. It's kind of like Jolly Ho kind of vibes. Okay. Because Soho began as an open farmland for hunting.

10:37Then, it went through, she went through a lot of changes, Soho. Then in 1530, King Henry VIII, who totally, we have to talk about him, used it as a royal park. He's like, this is all mine now. And then later, sold it to wealthy developers to create housing for nobility. So it's where all the fancy people lived. And then a century later, those houses were sold to wealthy tradesmen. And the tradesmen set up shop in the area. Got it. So then it became like a cool shopping town. Okay.

11:07Yes. And now you can buy a house in Soho for about a clean million. Or more. Must be nice. Yeah. You think it's like probably like 5 million now? There are houses in Soho for 5 million. They start, I looked it up. Because I'm like, wait, I want to live here. I looked it up. Yeah. It's pretty, it's pretty pricey. It can be pretty pricey. But like an average house is like a, maybe a little under a million. Okay. That's not as bad as I like would think. It's not terrible. I mean, that's. Are we talking pounds? Are we talking US dollars? We're talking.

11:37I mean, I kind of did the math a little bit. For, for pounds, for English pounds. But yeah, it's pretty much like, you want to live there? You got to spend about a million dollars. And in the 17th century, Soho did have a similar vibe as it does today. But think less cute coffee shops and more artisan workshops and more political upheaval. Okay. Well, maybe like kind of the same amount of political upheaval. The people are talking. And the people are talking revolution.

12:08While the God-fearing pearl-clutching sheeple were against the revolution and all the blood violence and beheadings, the bohemian artist crowd in London were definitely liking with the Frenchies and even their enemies, the Americans, were doing with this whole revolution thing. They were interested in this power to people. What is power to the people? What does that mean? Oh, let's fuck it up. Yeah. Let's fuck it up. Actually, we have the power. And our boy loved slash hated living in London.

12:38He said it was only in London that he could, quote, carry on his visionary studies, sea visions, dreams, dreams. Yeah. He was able to find his weird people in Soho and do shit like write poems and paint freaky illustrations. And nobody thinks, well, a lot of people thought it was weird, but he was able to do it. A lot of people thought it was really weird, but he was able to do it. It's kind of like living in San Francisco. We lived in San Francisco for a few years.

13:09You could totally freak the fuck out, get naked, roll around the street. And it's totally what else. And it's just a Tuesday. Nobody's going to even look at you or talk to you or anything about it. I love that. Oh, we're having problems. Okay. Okay. But he hated it for the same reasons that you could hate living in San Francisco too. Seeing people in desperate poverty and being oppressed and misery and death everywhere. That's city living. It's super fun and inspiring, but the other half of the time, it's like really sad and scary. Well, and it's like, if you can't control yourself.

13:42Yeah. Yeah. It can be hard and very unproductive. There's of course those differences there that, you know, we have addiction, crazy, more addictions and all that stuff. But let's get back to the fam. Yeah, yeah. These guys were pretty weird too. They're pretty weird. And I totally get where William gets his like stuff from mom. Mom. Mom. Mom was Catherine Wright and she was interesting. She was a mother of seven fucking kids.

14:13Oh, wow. Five of them did make it. The fucking water slide. Yeah, water slide. She's popping them out and only five of them did make it. Oh, damn. Damn, mom. She was also very religious. And we think she considered herself a Moravian Christian. Okay. Which is a sect of Christianity that's big on having like a really emotional relationship with Christ. Oh, God. Okay. Yeah, they're like a little more whimsical and like mythical about it. It's giving like new age,

14:44but still Christian kind of a thing. Like she was there. She's there with the crystals. Like she gets it. We're there. And Kathy definitely believed in angels and demons, not in like a metaphorical or allegorical type of dreamy way, but that they're real and that we deal with them on the daily. So mom's like stressed. Mom might be a little stressed. She's also like seeing and actively talking to angels and demons and stuff on the daily.

15:15And so that's where that's where William is growing up in that. Yeah, the art is making sense. Mythical beings are coming in our lives all the time and we're interacting with them all the time. So mom's kind of cool and weird and obviously a huge influence on William and his work. Sure. And dad, dad's pretty fucking weird too. And like a less, okay, it's a different way. So dad is James Blake and he was a hosier.

15:46Okay. So he just makes hosiery? Yeah. He sold stockings and other like knitwear and gloves and little sucky things from his shop. Sucky things. Little sucky things in a shop at the ground floor of their home in Soho. So he loves dad. He's cute. He was said to be pretty friendly and gentle and supportive of William's artwork. So even though he did kind of want him to get in the hosiery business, he had other kids that got into the hosiery business. So we're like, he's like, okay, maybe you're not the one

16:16that's going to like take on the stockings. You can do art. That's fine. So cute. We do like the fam. And we can't move on without mentioning William's favorite sibling, Robert. He was four years younger than William and they had a deeply spiritual relationship and would later collaborate from beyond when Robert died. So yeah, Robert died and William would actively talk to him. So there's a lot of like the spirits of your loved ones

16:48are all around you at all times. And yeah, this will be kind of like a theme for him. He had a few significant childhood experiences that shaped his whole vibe on like religion and art. When he was four, he claimed to see God. Quote, I saw God and he put his head to the window. Okay. Okay. Now, he's trying to see the sun. Yeah. William never said what God looked like. He just says that he sensed the presence. Okay. But we will see his depictions of God later on. It's like hot sand. Right, right, right.

17:19Right. And that's not the only spiritual childhood experience. At nine, he saw a tree filled with angels while on a walk in the country. He said, quote, a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars. Okay. So he's really saying this is not him saying I have a great imagination. I'm artsy. Like I see things. No, he's like, no, literally, I saw a bunch of angels with sparkling wings and stuff

17:50like up there. Damn. So he's the modern day medium. He's not normal. He's not normal. Obviously, he's an art kid and his parents being pretty cool sent him to art school when he was 10. He was like, you got to do this. You got to do this thing. You're crazy. He went to Henry Parr's drawing school where he trained in the classics, drawing plaster casts and learning anatomy and stuff. His dad would buy him prints by Durr, whose episode is coming soon, so don't freak out,

18:21and Michelangelo. And this made him fall in love with Renaissance art, which you can totally see the influence. He loved the intensity and mythology and wars with the devil and all that jazz. He wants drama. He wants angels and dragons and heroes and princesses, like stuff weirdo kids, like weirdo art kids, like metal kids. He's totally metal kid. And William was good at this shit, so much so that his work caught the attention of James Bazir, who was a highly respected engraver.

18:52The difference between engraver and printmaker, you must be asking.

18:58Obviously. Obviously, that's what you're asking right now. What's an engraver? To me, the engraver does the fun part. You can just carve a design in a copper plate, and then the engraver is not always the guy that actually prints the plate. You can hire a weirdo printmaker to do all the process shit. They like it. I don't know why. I love it. It's fun. I don't have the answers on why printmakers are weird. They just aren't. It's facts. So engraver dude James makes maps and stuff, and he does some really pretty landscapes too.

19:29He is actually a pretty big deal because he was a member of the Worshipful Company of Stationers. Okay. So this is- Tell me more. This is anything to do with like books, publishers, libraries, scribes, engravers, illuminators. Anything to do with like words on paper and publication and stuff. Sure. You got to go through these guys. Okay. And they were actually the first guys to enforce copyright law, so they're kind of cool, but sometimes they're bad because they can also enforce censorship.

20:01I'm like, we don't like what you're saying. We're not going to- Too much power. Yeah. No, pay with the people metaphorically, right? But our boy is in with the cool works on paper crowd now. One of his first assignments was to sketch the tombs and monuments at Westminster Abbey. So you can check out one of my favorites from these drawings, Countess Aveline's Tomb by William Blake. This is totally showing off his precision and skill. So his work

20:31was not always like wavy like that. Wavy and loopy and spirally like that. He totally understood the classics. He knew that he had to pay his dues and draw crips and stuff. And you can see where this type of work starts to mold your mind. You can just imagine drawing this. He's not in he's not using a reference or copying another drawing. His teacher sent him to the Abbey surrounded by statues

21:01of angels and kings and saints and drama. He's totally in his elements in this bitch. He's totally like Abbey drawing this stuff. He's totally happy drawing this stuff because he's surrounded by his like future characters really. Yeah. He was James's apprentice for seven years and then he enrolled in the Royal Academy under Sir Jocelyn Reynolds. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Reynolds makes an appearance again. He makes an appearance again. You guys remember Reynolds.

21:32We talked about him in our Henry Fusili episode. He's cool but he's tradish but open to new ideas kind of vibe. And William and Henry Henry Fusili were actually friends at the Academy. they went to school together. Oh cute. Okay. I like that. Now Henry he was a bit more established than William at the time. At this point he's lecturing at the school and at the time William enrolled he would be listening to his lectures and they were both actually inspired by each other's work.

22:03So they like totally get each other. They were cute. William actually engraved some of Henry's designs and Henry would fiercely defend William when people started calling him crazy at school. Oh fuck. Yeah. I mean even even Henry was like kind of an outsider at the school. Like he's definitely not tradish but Reynolds was like listen this guy has ideas. He's got this. Like he can lecture even though it's against me basically. But yeah William was a little more

22:35into Henry was very sociable and like very able to like talk to people and William can talk to people but he's in his another fucking world. So you have to have the right people around him. He really needs the right people around him because people are getting like is this guy crazy? Is this guy fucking I mean what's going on with you Will? You good? Are you okay? So in school at the very traditional Royal Academy now our boy was fully trained in traditional art techniques so he was

23:05at this point he was excited to start getting more like philosophical and conceptual and romantic. he would speak openly about his prophecies and his visions and how he wanted to I'm not hiding anymore. This is who I am. Yeah of like okay you're really trying to you're you're throwing that net out and trying to find your people and he wanted to translate his angels and demons into art which in today's art school landscape totally can't

23:35bring it on today. but back then people totally didn't get it again yeah one of his classmates reportedly saying there was no doubt that this poor man was mad so yeah another one calling him diseased and wild yeah you're being mean you're being mean he just wants to talk about angels dude you're being mean so we had while he had henry fusilli defending him william hated

24:07reynolds the guy the president guy okay remember when henry felt conflicted with reynolds is idealized beauty yes well william like really double down on that okay he called reynolds a hypocrite and accused him of trying to depress art by stripping it of imagination damn okay some real threats there he said quote this man was hired by the satans for the depression of art

24:38of like you really don't like henry was like chill with him like he's like we have conflicting ideas but i think we can vibe but william was like fuck your ideas fuck your ideas that's not what art is dude no no no no no yeah this tension between reynolds and william only push our boy further into the outskirts further into like being rebellious sure but we love that yeah of like we needed that but it's gonna be a whole lifelong

25:09thing pretty much of this stuff he's not backing down he's not getting nicer about his visions nor should well okay go nuts lean into it lean into it you're at art school but no there's still like tradition annoying oh my god tradition in 1780 he showed his first piece a watercolor called the death of earl godwin earl godwin was an important political figure in the 11th century england and his sudden death

25:40that was probably a heart attack kind of turned into this whole lore about him later it was written that he choked on a piece of bread while professing his innocence because he was accused of killing this guy it's like a god vengeance kind of thing like i'm innocent you eat something god coming in and intervening it's like in basketball they say the ball don't lie it's the same thing there you go don't fucking lie

26:11you're gonna choke on some bread exactly yeah and this boy william is probably maybe he's hoping for the same fate for sir reynolds so like he's petty he's petty he's petty and nobody got it nobody gets it it was messy and raw and so unlike the other works in the exhibition i could already hear them being like this is an underpainting this isn't finished like this is really too much too much craziness going

26:41on here what's wrong with you dude you're already saying weird shit now your art is totally weird it was overlooked nobody knew that this was the beginning of something huge for william and for art and illustration as we know it right so yeah he's basically like dismissed please go please leave so after school he's freelancing he's engraving he's illustrating he's frustrated because he's not having too much creative control in this so he's working things out in the stude

27:11and then he met a girl who is she well he met a girl after meeting another girl oh here's here's the tea so this is kind of funny so he met this chick polly wood and he fell hard for her i guess she was like really cute and bubbly they dated for a short while and he ended up accusing her of like seeing other dudes and she was like yeah dude it's not that deep do you see

27:41me i'm so cute but it was that deep for him so yeah she basically rejected him because he was too jelly yeah and later he said of that relationship quote cured me of my jealousy oh oh women don't like that women really don't like that nobody likes that he learned that yeah nobody nobody wants to be that jealous it's annoying

28:12i'm also i'm also look at me i'm so cute i'm dating other guys yeah but like i'm not being weird about it like dude come on so yeah he was too jelly so he went to battersea which at the time was like countryside kind of vibes okay he needed to like leave for a minute i'm totally get i totally get it if i'm feeling weird you just gotta go and just gotta go doesn't matter where just go just go get out of here get out of here yeah free your mind and in battersea he met another girl

28:43okay okay okay he's figuring it out he's figuring it out he met