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

Blake marginalia Title Page A01

This Man was Hired to Depress Art
This is the Opinion of Will Blake
my Proofs
of this Opinion
are given on the
following Note

Editorial Note:
William Blake opens with an emphatic introduction; that Reynolds is a hired hand determined to destroy Art and will be expanded throughout the volume. In another of Blake’s annotated books, Lavater’s Aphorisms on Man, Blake left a little heart indicating pleasure. This title, however, has a thick slash and heavy penmanship.

Written in pen.

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