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John Flaxman
John Flaxman

John Flaxman

English, 1755-1826
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John Flaxman was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several years in Rome, where he produced his first book illustrations. He was a prolific maker of funerary monuments.

He was born in York. His father, also named John (1726–1803), was well known as a moulder and seller of plaster casts at the sign of the Golden Head, New Street, Covent Garden, London. His wife's maiden name was Lee, and they had two children, William and John. Within six months of John's birth the family returned to London. He was a sickly child, high-shouldered, with a head too large for his body. His mother died when he was nine, and his father remarried. He had little schooling, and was largely self-educated. He took delight in drawing and modelling from his father's stock-in-trade, and studied translations from classical literature in an effort to understand them.

His father's customers helped him with books, advice, and later with commissions. Particularly significant were the painter George Romney, and a cultivated clergyman, Anthony Stephen Mathew and his wife Mrs. Mathew, in whose house in Rathbone Place the young Flaxman used to meet the best "blue-stocking" society of the day and, among those his own age, the artists William Blake and Thomas Stothard, who became his closest friends. At the age of 12 he won the first prize of the Society of Arts for a medallion, and exhibited in the gallery of the Free Society of Artists; at 15 he won a second prize from the Society of Arts showed at the Royal Academy for the first time. In the same year, 1770, he entered the Academy as a student and won the silver medal. In the competition for the gold medal of the Academy in 1772, however, Flaxman was defeated, the prize being awarded by the president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, to a competitor named Engleheart. This episode seemed to help cure Flaxman of a tendency to conceit which led Thomas Wedgwood V to say of him in 1775, "It is but a few years since he was a most supreme coxcomb."

He continued to work diligently, both as a student and as an exhibitor at the Academy, with occasional attempts at painting.

126 items

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Study for Pilgrim’s Progress

Study for Pilgrim’s Progress

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Study for ‘The Fury of Athamas’

Study for ‘The Fury of Athamas’ (probably c. 1790-1794)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Study of Neptune and Sea Creatures

Study of Neptune and Sea Creatures

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Three Groups of Figures (Parents and Children)

Three Groups of Figures (Parents and Children)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Two Airborne Figures Reaching out to One Another

Two Airborne Figures Reaching out to One Another

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Achilles and the Shade of Patroclus

Achilles and the Shade of Patroclus (1793)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Dante and Virgil in the Suicidal Wood

Dante and Virgil in the Suicidal Wood (1792–93)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Design for a Frieze, after a Roman Sarcophagus; The First Visit of Bacchus to Ariadne

Design for a Frieze, after a Roman Sarcophagus; The First Visit of Bacchus to Ariadne (18th century)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Illustration for ‘Seven Chiefs Against Thebes’

Illustration for ‘Seven Chiefs Against Thebes’ (ca. 1794)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Pope’s Odyssey, Book 12

Pope’s Odyssey, Book 12 (1792)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Sheet of Sketches

Sheet of Sketches (1793)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Sheet of Studies with Female Figure Kneeling and Embracing Standing Figure

Sheet of Studies with Female Figure Kneeling and Embracing Standing Figure (1775–1826)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Sketch for the Title-Page of an Edition of Aeschylus

Sketch for the Title-Page of an Edition of Aeschylus (1793)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Sleep Escaping from the Wrath of Jupiter

Sleep Escaping from the Wrath of Jupiter (1793)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
St. John the Evangelist

St. John the Evangelist (ca. 1811)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Study of Two Women Grieving

Study of Two Women Grieving (before 1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
A Roman Throne, Palazzo Mattei, and Spoils of War at Palazzo Altieri, Rome

A Roman Throne, Palazzo Mattei, and Spoils of War at Palazzo Altieri, Rome (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
A Roman Tragic Mask and a Male Head

A Roman Tragic Mask and a Male Head (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
A Son of Niobe from the Niobid Group, Uffizi, Florence

A Son of Niobe from the Niobid Group, Uffizi, Florence (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
A Son of Niobe, Uffizi, Florence

A Son of Niobe, Uffizi, Florence (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Apollo With the Lyre, Villa Medici, Rome

Apollo With the Lyre, Villa Medici, Rome (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Aspasia, Priestess, Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome

Aspasia, Priestess, Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Bacchic Scene, Palazzo Naro, Rome

Bacchic Scene, Palazzo Naro, Rome (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Bacchus Standing, Leaning on a Faun

Bacchus Standing, Leaning on a Faun (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Back View of a Woman with Child Looking Over Her Shoulder

Back View of a Woman with Child Looking Over Her Shoulder

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Back View of Mrs. Siddons

Back View of Mrs. Siddons (1783)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
But Deliver Us From Evil

But Deliver Us From Evil (1805)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Ceres, Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Ceres, Palazzo Barberini, Rome (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Christ in the Storm, from Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Baptistery Doors, Florence

Christ in the Storm, from Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Baptistery Doors, Florence (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
Crouching Venus, from the Gabinetto delle Maschere, Vatican Museum, Rome

Crouching Venus, from the Gabinetto delle Maschere, Vatican Museum, Rome (1787)

John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
Drawings
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