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John Flaxman

Born: York, 17 July 1755
Died: London, 9 December 1826
Nationality: English
Background: 

son of a plaster-cast maker

Studies: 

with father; Royal Academy (from 1770, London)

Career: 

1770 - enters the Royal Academy School

1771-73 – exhibits at RA

1775 – begins working as designer for Josiah Wedgwood

1780s – establishes reputation as a sculptor of funerary monuments

1810 – elected Professor of Sculpture at RA

Protégé of poet William Hayley, friend of William Blake

Travels

Rome (1787-94)

Commissions from: 

Josiah Wedgwood

Important Artworks: 

Fury of Athamas, 1790 (Ickworth, Suffolk)

Illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy, 1792 (Tommaso Piroli, engraver) - Sample page (Brown University Library)

Homer’s Odyssey, 1793 (Tommaso Piroli, engraver) - Sample page (Art Instute of Chicago)

Portrait of Fuseli, c. 1800 (Bode Museum, Berlin)

Monument to Lord Nelson, 1818 (St Paul’s Cathedral, London)

Guy Head, Portrait of John Flaxman, 1790s (National Portrait Gallery, London)