Accompanying the first exhibition devoted to the subject, William Blake in Sussex considers the collective significance of the English county to the life and work of the the celebrated artist and writer. The only place outside of London where Blake ever lived, Sussex inspired a wide body of extraordinary work, done for new and existing patrons and ranging from the familiar to the rarely considered. Disillusioned with London life and struggling to make a living, Blake and his wife Catherine went in 1800 to live at the coastal village of Felpham, which the artist soon described as "the sweetest spot on earth". Providing his principal encounters with both English rural life and the coast, the artist's three years "on the banks of the ocean" informed his two greatest illustrated epic poems, Milton and Jerusalem, and continued to be reflected in his work for the rest of his career.
