Friday, May 11, 2018

Flaxman at Cambridge

John Flaxman
Portrait of William Blake
before 1826
drawing
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman
Portrait of unknown man
1801
drawing
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman for Josiah Wedgwood
Hercules and the Erymanthian Boar
modelled in 1775
produced in jasperware ca. 1790
stoneware plaque
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman for Josiah Wedgwood
Farnese Hercules 
modelled in 1776
produced in jasperware ca. 1777-80
stoneware plaque
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

"John Flaxman Jr (1755-1826) – An English artist, sculptor and designer born in York, Flaxman was the son of a modeller and maker of plaster casts, also called John.  The family moved to Covent Garden, London in 1756.  Ten years later, when only 11, Flaxman Jr – a sickly boy with congenital curvature of the spine – won a premium from the Society of Arts, later the Royal Society of Arts.  Three years later he enrolled as one of the first students of the newly founded Royal Academy Schools.  He exhibited  at the Academy for the first time in 1770, and within a year had come to the attention of Josiah Wedgwood.  John Flaxman Sr supplied Wedgwood with models for so-called wine and water ewers, occasionally described as Sacred to Bacchus and Sacred to Neptune, in 1775.  The same year his son began to provide models and designs to the Wedgwood factory, ideally suited to the white reliefs Josiah used on his fine jasper pieces.  Most were modelled in wax onto slate or glass grounds before being cast for production." 

"In 1787 Flaxman went to Rome, partly sponsored by Wedgwood, to do modelling and supervise the Wedgwood school in Rome.  He stayed seven years, but after producing only a couple of designs for Wedgwood he worked on his own projects, the most successful of which were the illustrations he produced for the works of Homer and Dante.  These used a flat linear style, for which Flaxman became known and imitated; his experience of creating the bas reliefs for Wedgwood gave him a deep understanding of the effectiveness of such a style." 

 – curator's notes from Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent

John Flaxman
Family Affection, or, Charity
(woman in classical dress with children)
1819
plaster relief-cast
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman
Family Affection, or, Charity
(woman in classical dress with children)
1819
plaster relief-cast
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman
Apollo
(Attic Greek statuette owned and 'restored' by Flaxman)
1st century AD
marble
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman
Apollo
(Attic Greek statuette owned and 'restored' by Flaxman)
1st century AD
marble
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman
Ascension of a Soul
before 1826
drawing
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman
A Soul appearing before the Judges of Hades
before 1826
drawing
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman
Medieval Scene
before 1826
drawing
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman
Portrait of Mrs Charles Tulk and her sons Augustus and Edward
1816
drawing
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman
Portrait of Mrs Charles Tulk and her sons Augustus and Edward
1816
drawing
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

John Flaxman
Portrait of Mrs Charles Tulk and her sons Augustus and Edward
1816
drawing
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Richard Woodman after a painting by John Jackson
Portrait of John Flaxman
1831
engraved book illustration
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge