Hired to Depress: A Digital Scholarly Edition of William Blake's Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses

Blake marginalia Contents Page A02

To learn the
Language
of Art
Copy for
Ever. is
My Rule

Editorial Note:
A key element to the art of engraving is that apprentices are rigorously trained to copy and innovate other artists and nature. Blake references copywork in other places of Discourses: “[copying] is the only School to the Language of Art” (E 638) and “the difference between a bad Artist & a Good One Is the Bad Artist seems to copy a Great Deal: The Good One Really Does Copy a Great Deal” (645). 

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