son of a plaster-cast maker
with father; Royal Academy (from 1770, London)
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
Rome (1787-94)
Josiah Wedgwood
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)
Bindman, David. John Flaxman. London: Thames and Hudson, 1979
Irwin, David. John Flaxman, 1755-1826: Sculptor, Illustrator, Designer. New York: Rizzoli, 1979
Symmons, Sarah. Flaxman and Europe: The Outline Illustrations and Their Influence. New York: Garland, 1984
