FLA XIIAN, JOHN, was born at York, July 6,1755; yet he may properly be considered a denizen of the metropolis, for he was brought to London when not more than six mouths old. At that time his father, who was a moulder of figures, kept a shop in Newetreet, Covent Garden, and subsequently in the Strand ; and it was in this humble studio that the future artist received the first artistic impressions. A natural weakness of constitution and delicacy of health, which continued until about his tenth year, gave him a relish for solitary and sedentary amusement It was perhaps fortunate for him as an artist to have thus early and constantly before his eyes objects adapted to fix his feelings, and to reuse his intelligence. Seated behind the counter with paper and pencil, or with books, he studied more desultorily than would otherwise have been the case, yet perhaps more profitably and more diligently, because less compulsorily.
After the death of his mother, which occurred when he was iu his tenth par, his father married a second wife, who treated young Flax man and him brother with such tenderness as to win their affection and esteem. It was somewhere about this period that having attracted the notice of the Rev. Mr. Mathew, ho was introduced by that gentle man to his wife, a lady of very superior acquirements, who took delight in making him acquainted with the beauties of Homer and Virgil, while he would attempt to embody with his pencil such poetic images or parts of the narrations as most caught his fancy. By those kind and judicious friends he was encouraged to study the original languages; and although here also ho was chiefly his own tutor, he made such proficiency as enabled him to read the master poets of antiquity, if not very critically, yet with sufficient readiness to enter into their spirit and follow their conceptions.
In his fifteenth year Flaxman became a student of the Royal Academy, and in 3770 exhibited, as his first subject there, a figure of Neptune in wax. Here, while he distinguished himself by tho assiduity with which he prosecuted hie studies, ho received a lesson which taught him that application and enthusiasm combined are not always • match for mediocrity when backed by favour, or following the ordinary routine of the established authorities ; for on his becoming • candidate for the gold medal (the silver ono he had previously carried off), the prize was awarded to Englehcart, a now utterly forgotten name. Mortified, yet not dispirited, Flaxman returned to his studies, with unabated energy, although for some time compelled to devote a considerable portion of his time to pro viding for the exigencies of the passing day, which he did by designing and modelling for others, particularly for the Wedgwood*, to whom his talents and his taste were eminently useful. Moderate as was the
remuneration, such employment put him at ease in his pecuniary circumstances, because be already possessed one very important fund towards pecuniary independence, namely • contented frugality and an utter disrellsh of all expensive habits and amusements. And here it may be observed, that even in after-life, when he was in comparative affluence, and when his fame would have been a passport to the most brilliant circles, he continued to distinguish himself by perfect elm plicity in his habits and mode of living, equally remote from affectation on the one hand and • spirit of penuriousness on the other.
In 1782 he removed from his paternal residence in the Strand, and established himself in a house in Wardouretreet In the same year Po married Miss Ann Denman, a woman equally estimable for her virtues and her accomplishments. He soon after gave proofs of meremed ability in his profession by his monument of Collins the poet, in Chichester Cathedral, and that of Mrs. Morley, in Gloucester Cathedral; the latter especially a work replete with that poetic simplicity and pathos which hallow so many of our artist's productions of that class. In 1787 be set out for Italy, accompanied by his wife. While he was at Rome ho made a series of thirty-nine subjects from the 'Iliad,' and thirty-four from the 'Odyssey,' illustrative of the principal events in those poems. Although he received a very small pecuniary remuneration for these remarkable compositions, he was paid in worthier coin, for they at once stamped his reputation. They also served to collect patrons around him ; among the rest the Countess Spencer, for whom he composed his series of illustrations of chylue,' and the eccentric Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, who had commissioned him to execute the group of 'Athamas: This group Fineman engaged to execute for 6004 a sum far too small to repay the costliness of the material and the labour bestowed on its execution; but Flaxman was too honourable to retract from his engagement During his stay at Rome he executed for Mr. Thomas Hope an exquisite small marble group of 'Cephalus and Aurora? It was for him too that he produced that third sublime series of poetic compositions, the 'Illustrations of Dante,' amounting altogether to 109 subjects, namely, thirty-eight from the Inferno,' as many from the ' Purgatorio,' and thirty-three from the 'Pamditio.' Here, being left almost entirely to the resources of his own imagination, without assistance from the previous ideas of other artists, he manifested still greater originality of mind and intellectual vigour than in the Homeric series, or that from 2Eschylus. All the three constitute an almost uew province of art, combining the distinguishing qualities of picturesque and sculpturesque design.