At the centre of this small exhibition is a recreation of Blake’s studio at No. 13 Hercules Buildings, Lambeth. The artificial lights of the museum skew the no-doubt dim conditions in which the poet-cum-painter-cum-engraver, of small but strong stature, worked his monstrous press. Yet the recreation fails to communicate the intricacies of Blake’s work, and this is where the main focus of the exhibition lies: the progression of the artist’s technique. Guest curator Michael Phillips examines Blake’s relationship with his work and though historical context suffers, the viewer is shown how Blake’s struggles were influential to a generation of artists, including Samuel Palmer, George Richmond and Edward Calvert.

In the exhibition’s first gallery of three, Blake’s life until around 1790 is presented through a mix of his engravings, paintings and the written word. The unusual, if slightly perplexing, presentation of exhibits produces an underwhelming effect. Unless knowledgeable about St. Jerome, one would do well to match the description to the engraving, hidden, somewhat reluctantly, behind a lamentation and a reproduction of a Raphael: a feature disappointingly common throughout the exhibition. Nevertheless, the scene is set. Welcoming the viewer into eighteenth-century London is John Collet’s vast painting Covent Garden Piazza and Market (c.1770-1780) (Catalogue No. 4, Museum of London) – depicting young Blake’s source of prints of the works of the Masters.

The classical inflections in his earlier work are not surprising. In an age of Neoclassicism, other engravers and etchers had similar styles, conforming and providing for the tastes of the age. The ‘genius’ of Blake only comes into view after we are rushed past his apprenticeship, undertaken with James Basire. Joshua Reynolds is portrayed in his typically villainous role as president of the Royal Academy, whose dismissive comments about engravers and caricaturists serve as a political backdrop to the celebrated Beggar’s Opera Act III (1790) (Cat. 87, Collection of Andrew Edmunds, London). This copy of William Hogarth’s original was the fruit of two years’ work. It was the pinnacle of Blake’s mastership in engraving and secured financial security for his family, something that most engravers and caricaturists did not enjoy. Additionally, the depiction of the gurning face in Head of a Damned Soul (c.1789-90) (Cat. 85, Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow) establishes Blake’s mastery in the ‘dot and lozenge’ technique. With this last exhibit in gallery one, the commercial copy engraver is on the cusp of transformation into an innovator.

Even with a cursory glance, imaginative application of colour overawes the precision of the engraver in gallery two. The technique of ‘Illuminated Printing’ is slowly revealed by Phillips who uses early works such as The Approach of Doom (c.1788) (Cat. 96, The Trustees of the British Museum) to emphasise Blake’s experimental processes. Alongside the earlier works are Blake’s own copies of George Townshend’s A Political and Satirical History of the Years 1756 and 1757 and the 13th-century Bible Moralisee which help to situate the origins of Blake’s technique within a wider tradition of combining pictures with words. From the Songs of Innocence (1789) (Cat. 108, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford) to Europe: A Prophecy (1794) (Cat. 115, 133-7, various collections), the viewer is led on a tour of Blake’s developing innovative technique, constantly having to fill in the historical gaps.

Acknowledging my bias as well as the limitations of space in the exhibition, the absence of historical context was detrimental to the experience. Technique is foregrounded, but these developments could have been woven into an analogous narrative of revolutionary Europe. Europe: A Prophecy is left floating, and the grotesque and strange depictions of death in Pity (c. 1794-95) (Cat. 147, The Trustees of the British Museum), Nebuchadnezzar (c.1795-1805) (Cat. 150, Tate, London) and The House of Death / The Lazar House (1795) (Cat. 153-5, various collections) are subjected to a similar fate. However, this should not detract from Blake’s powerful combination of the visual and text.

In the last gallery, the focus turns to Blake’s later life. Re-engaged with the likes of Dürer and Leyden, the exhibits demonstrate yet another turn in technique. In reference to his Renaissance heroes, tempera is used in various works and the use of engraving returns in his last commissioned work, Illustrations of the Book of Job (1826) (Cat. 205-8, various collections). Virgil’s Pastorals (1820-21) (Cat. 189, 191-6, various collections) are subjected to the intricate details of woodblock engravings and this is where the most effective part of Apprentice & Master comes to the fore. Blake’s legacy is made clear in the juxtaposition of the work of Palmer, Richmond and Calvert, or the ‘Ancients’ who sought to use similar techniques and styles, which is most ably depicted by Palmer’s A Rustic Scene (1825) and Calvert’s The Cyder Festival (1828) (Cat. 228 & 233, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford).

Overall, the exhibition reveals some subtle points about Blake and his technique. It is noticeable how the expressive nature and Classical subject exemplified by Head of a Damned Soul never waned from his work even after 1790. It tells a story of Blake’s strange convergence of Neo-classical influences, the desire to shock and exhibit virtuoso techniques. Due to the centerpiece being underwhelming and some of the nuances of the exhibition somewhat lost by obscure presentation, Blake is positioned on a slightly unstable pedestal. It may have been advisable to attend the exhibition in tandem with a talk as part of the Inspired by Blake festival (16th – 31st January 2015), which hosted poetry readings, printing demonstrations by the guest curator, and numerous panel discussions, including Philip Pullman, author and current President of the Blake Society. The merchandise available is suitably presented around a printing press. Where variety is lacking, quality makes up and the catalogue accompanying the exhibition (which is discounted if a ticket for the exhibition is bought) was a very pleasurable read and is where historical context really comes to the fore, enabling a fuller understanding of Blake’s individual development, Apprentice & Master’s main tenet.

William Blake: Apprentice & Master is at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, from 4th December 2014 to 1st March 2015.