THE DELICATE BOY WHO BECAME ENGLAND’S GREATEST SCULPTOR
In the middle of the eighteenth century there was a little shop in the
heart of London, England, where the owner sold antique plaster casts
of famous people. Most of these casts were of persons written of in
classic history such as Niobe, Venus, Hercules, Ajax and Achilles, but
others were of more recent times as Lord Howe, Admiral Hawke and George
II who was reigning at that time.
Visitors to this place saw at the back of the shop a delicate little
lad, with a pale face, generally seated in a chair stuffed with
cushions and propped by pillows. Never far from him was his mother, the
shopkeeper’s wife, whose greatest care in life seemed to be her sick
boy who looked as though he would never grow up to become a man.
Little John Flaxman--for that was the boy’s name--came into the world
with so frail a body that few people thought he could live very long.
For the first ten years of his life only the constant care of his
father and mother kept him alive. He attended school for a very short
time. His health made it impossible for him to take his place alongside
other boys, and as to romping around and playing with them, of course
it was out of the question. He hobbled around on crutches and often as
he lay at home supported by pillows he could hear the shouts of other
boys at play.
The plaster casts around his father’s shop never failed to interest
John Flaxman. He asked a great many questions about each one, and
questions which his parents could not always answer. He was anxious
to get an education and as he was unable to attend school he depended
largely upon the help his parents could give him.
One day a clergyman named Matthews visited the shop in order to get a
little model repaired which his servant had broken. While Mr. Flaxman,
senior, was repairing the figure, the clergyman noticed little John
reading and when he saw that the book was a Latin grammar he became
interested at once. The pale, delicate face of the boy greatly
attracted Mr. Matthews and he promised to return the following day with
a book of Homer so that the boy could learn about the classic heroes,
concerning whom the lad asked so many times. The clergyman was as good
as his word, and next day put into John’s hands a volume of Homer,
which so fascinated John Flaxman, that soon he covered whole sheets of
paper with sketches of scenes from Homer’s works. He spent a great many
hours trying to mould figures, using plaster of paris, soft clay or
wax. As he was only eight or nine years of age, his models were quite
crude, but he laboured away and as he seemed so supremely happy in
doing it, his parents gently praised his work.
After he passed his tenth birthday he began to grow stronger. He became
well enough to go out without his crutches, and while he was far from
being as robust as other lads of his age, he was able to take walks in
the park and soon some colour of health stole into his cheeks.
One day Rev. Mr. Matthews invited John over to his home so that Mrs.
Matthews might tell him more about the heroes of Greece about whom
he was so fond of reading. That was the beginning of a new day in
John’s life. He listened spell-bound as Mrs. Matthews told of the
romantic careers of Hercules, Achilles and many others. He visited the
Matthews’ home a great many times, and tried hard to make plaster casts
of these heroes of ancient times. There came to him a great ambition.
He resolved to become a sculptor. At first it seemed ridiculous and
almost impossible. He had scarcely been to school a day in his life.
His parents were too poor to send him to any art school, but what
seemed to be even a greater obstacle than either, was his own health
which still prevented him from getting around as other boys did. But
the more he thought about it the more determined he became to realise
his ambition.
About this time a gentleman asked him to make six drawings and when
they were finished he praised John’s work and paid him for it. This
was the first money that John had ever earned and there was no happier
or prouder boy in all England. He began to attend an art academy and
when he was fifteen he won a silver medal in the academy contest for a
model he had cast. Two years later he tried for the gold medal award,
and although it was expected by all that he would win, the prize was
awarded to another boy. This was a bitter disappointment to John
Flaxman, but in reality it was a good thing for him. He became more
determined than ever to put his best into everything he attempted and
to take nothing for granted.
About this time the great potter Josiah Wedgwood heard about John
Flaxman’s skill and visited him. He asked him to make some designs in
pottery: tea-cups, saucers, jugs and tea-pots. Wedgwood did not know
whether or not John Flaxman would think himself above doing such things
but the young sculptor never hesitated a moment. He was glad to do the
work, both for the experience he would get, and because of the money he
could earn, which he badly needed. Josiah Wedgwood was delighted with
Flaxman’s work and the two worked together for several years.
One day John Flaxman heard the great artist Sir Joshua Reynolds say, in
a lecture, that no man could hope to become a great artist, either as
a painter or a sculptor, who did not visit Italy and so study at first
hand the great masterpieces that are to be found there. Flaxman left
that lecture very much depressed. Just a short time before that he had
married and he told his young wife what Sir Joshua Reynolds had said.
She was not discouraged in the least. She said: “You earn what you can,
and leave the saving to me, and perhaps before many years are over,
we shall have enough to take us both to Italy.” So, for five years
John Flaxman worked as hard as his health would permit. Even for fine
designs he received at first only fifteen shillings each and, later on,
one guinea. But his careful wife kept putting away a little whenever
she could, and at the end of five years, they had sufficient to take
them to Italy.
It was in 1787 that John Flaxman went to Italy and he stayed there
seven years, studying, and at the same time working to earn money. What
he saw in Italy greatly astonished and delighted him. The marvellous
workmanship of Michael Angelo and other great masters thrilled him so
that he longed to greatly improve upon his own work. When he returned
from Rome in 1794 he soon had more work than he could do. He executed
a monument to Lord Mansfield which was placed in Westminster Abbey and
when a noted sculptor of that time saw it, he said: “This little man,
Flaxman, cuts us all out.”
From that time until he died in 1826, John Flaxman easily took the
leading place among English sculptors. He had studied carefully the
works of other men, but he was constantly carrying out some new ideas
of his own. When he went out for a walk he often saw scenes which
gave him ideas and he would return to his study and commence the work
of making models of what he had seen. He found his subjects in the
parks, the streets, and often even in the nursery, for he dearly loved
children. As he walked along the streets he did not look as though
he were a great man. He seemed very feeble, and his head appeared to
be too large for his body. He hurried along with a peculiar sidelong
gait and he gave passers-by the impression that he was more or less
deformed. Still, in spite of all this John Flaxman became one of the
greatest men of his day. His works may be seen at a great many places
in Great Britain and even in India. He helped in the decorations for
Buckingham Palace and many of the noblest monuments in St. Paul’s
Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are the works of his hands. Others are
to be found in such places as the British Museum, South Kensington
Museum and the Flaxman Hall at University College. He was made
Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy and when he died in 1826 no
one disputed what was said of him: “He was the most gifted genius in
sculpture that England ever produced.”