Peter Blake's Early life:

Peter Blake was born in Dartford, Kent into a lower-middle class family. Following the outbreak of World War II, Peter Blake, as a youth, was evacuated from his hometown. This coupled with the wartime rationing of resources and economic downturn had a large effect on Peter Blake’s later work. From 1951 to 1953 he served in the Royal Air Force.

Following his time in the national service, Peter Blake studied at the Gravesend School of Art, and then the Royal College of Art from 1953 to 1956. His contemporaries there included Bridget Riley and Frank Auerbach. He graduated in 1956 and returned to teach from 1964 to 1976, where he met then-student Ian Dury (1942–2000), who remained a friend throughout his life.

During the late 1960s, Peter Blake became one of the best known British pop artists. His paintings from this time included imagery from advertisements, music hall entertainment, and wrestlers, often including collaged elements. Peter Blake was included in group exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and had his first one person exhibitions in 1960. It was with the 'Young Contemporaries' exhibition of 1961 where he was exhibited alongside David Hockney and R.B. Kitaj that he was first identified with the emerging British Pop Art movement. Peter Blake won the (1961) John Moores junior award for his work Self Portrait with Badges. He first came to wider public attention when, along with Pauline Boty, Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips, he featured in Ken Russell's film on pop art, Pop Goes the Easel, which was broadcast on BBC television in 1962. From 1963 Peter Blake was represented by Robert Fraser which placed him at the centre of swinging London and brought him into contact with leading figures of popular culture. Peter Blake is a legend.

Peter Blake also often directly referred to the work of other artists. On the Balcony (1955-57) has Edouard Manet's The Balcony being held by a boy on the left of the composition, and The First Real Target (1961) is a standard archery target with the title written across the top as a play on the paintings of targets by Kenneth Noland and Jasper Johns.

Peter Blake also painted several notable album sleeves. As well as the sleeve for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which he designed with his then-wife Jann Haworth, Peter Blake also made sleeves for the Band Aid single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (1984), Paul Weller's Stanley Road (1995) and the Ian Dury tribute album Brand New Boots and Panties (2001) (Peter Blake had been Dury's tutor at the Royal College of Art in the mid-60s). He also designed the sleeve for The Who's Face Dances (1981), which features portraits of the band by a number of artists.

In the early 1970s, he made a set of watercolours to illustrate Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, and in 1975 Peter Blake was a founder of the Brotherhood of Ruralists.

Peter Blake was made a Royal Academician in 1981, a CBE in 1983, and in 2002 was knighted. In February 2005, the Sir Peter Blake Music Art Gallery, located in the School of Music, University of Leeds, was opened by the artist. The permanent exhibition features 14 examples of Peter Blake's album sleeve art, including the only public showing of a signed print of his famed Sgt. Pepper's artwork. In June 2006, as the Who returned to play Leeds University 36 years after recording their seminal Live at Leeds album there in 1970, Peter Blake unveiled a new Live at Leeds 2 artwork to commemorate the event. Both the artist and the Who's Pete Townshend signed an edition which will join the gallery's collection.