[Born at York, 1755. Died 1826. Aged 71.]
Beyond all compare the greatest artist England has produced, and in all
respects one of her worthiest sons. His life constitutes one of the
landmarks set up in a nation for the guidance of the ambitious, and the
encouragement of the desponding. His father was a moulder of plaster
casts: in whose humble shop the boy received his earliest inspiration.
Feeble, and crippled, and thrown upon himself, he read such books as he
could obtain, and made drawings from the classic models that surrounded
him. This was his education, for there was no money at home to purchase
a better. At ten, the self-taught boy could read Latin, and had picked
up much varied information. A shop filled with plaster casts will be
visited occasionally by men of taste and feeling. One such man saw, and
was struck by the genius of John Flaxman. His name was Mathew, and by
him the child, who could read Latin, was made acquainted with the
beauties of the Iliad and Odyssey. At fifteen, admitted a student of the
Royal Academy, and competed successfully for the silver medal. What was
to be done next?--the father without means, and the youth old enough to
earn his own bread! The young sculptor entered the service of the
Messrs. Wedgwood, and devoted some dozen years of his life to the
improvement of their porcelain manufacture. His genius stamped upon the
products of the potteries a character of beauty and classic elegance
rivalling the productions of any country. The forms were admired in his
own day; they are now more highly esteemed than ever. At the age of
twenty-seven Flaxman married Anne Denman. His marriage, his friends
declared, would ruin him as an artist. Friends are apt to look upon the
shadowy side of one’s happiness. In this case they were mistaken. Anne
Denman had the finest qualities of heart; she possessed also exquisite
taste, and a cultivated mind. She appreciated the genius of her husband,
and was an enthusiast for his works. She accompanied him to Italy, where
he nourished his talents by the study of the masterpieces of antiquity.
At Rome he executed his illustrations of Homer, Hesiod, Æschylus, and
Dante. For the first-named he received fifteen shillings for each
drawing, and was satisfied. He was elected member of the Academies of
Florence and Carrara, and after seven years’ absence came back to
England. His reputation bad preceded him, and he soon justified his fame
by his noble monument of Lord Mansfield, in Westminster Abbey. The works
of Flaxman, whether of the pencil or the chisel, may take rank with the
productions of any age or country. They are distinguished by simplicity,
dignity, sublimity, grace, and true poetic feeling. If any modern
sculptor may take rank with the ancients, Flaxman’s place will be second
to none. His productions are scattered over the globe; we meet them in
India, the two Americas, and in Italy, as well as nearer home. He is
better appreciated everywhere than in England. But we are beginning to
know his value. His worth as a man was equal to his greatness as an
artist. All who knew him speak of his modesty, his gentleness, his
single-heartedness. After the death of his wife in 1820, whom he
tenderly loved, he lived in comparative retirement.
[By E. H. Baily, R.A. From the marble executed for Sir Thomas
Lawrence, 1824.]