William Blake, The Ghost of a Flea 1820

My favorite art piece.

A little bit about Blake :

Famous English painter, poet, and print-maker. Blake’s art addresses the

The great human problems - separation, evil, and salvation - through anthropomorphic symbolism and mythology. His vividly imaginative work, as he claims, originated from visions of angels and spirits in his childhood, who would appear to him and that he would later sketch.

About the painting:

Completed in 1820, this miniature painting (21.4 cm x 16.2 cm) is

part of a series of works depicting "Visionary Heads" commissioned by the watercolourist and astrologist John Varley (1788–1842).

The flea, also seem to originate from an early vision where Blake saw a ghost standing at his garden door, “a horrible grim figure, 'scaly, speckled, very awful,' stalking ».

In both his artwork and poetry, Blake often gave personality and human form to such abstractions as time, death, plague and famine. Fleas are often associated with uncleanliness and degradation; in this work, the artist sought to magnify a flea into "a monstrous creature whose bloodthirsty instinct was imprinted on every detail of its appearance, with 'burning eyes which long for moisture', and a 'face worthy of a murderer'."

^sources :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_a_Flea

http://www.universalis-edu.com.lama.univ-amu.fr/encyclopedie/blake-william-1757-1827/