John Flaxman

John Flaxman (1755-1826) was a prominent sculptor. He married Anne Denman in 1782, living in Wardour Street, London. In 1787 they moved to Rome, remaining there until 1794. He worked for many years for the Wedgwoods, but his greatest fame came from his sculptures, most of them based upon classical themes and characters, though his illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy is considered by many as his finest achievement. They resettled in Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, London. In 1800 he became a full member of the Royal Academy. Anne died in 1820, but her younger sister Maria Denman and Flaxman’s own half-sister, Maria Flaxman (1768-1833), an artist and illustrator herself, continued to live with him (she first came to his home in Buckingham Street in 1810). Six of her designs were engraved by William Blake in his 1803 edition of William Hayley’s The Triumphs of Temper. She exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1780 and 1819. Maria Denman would be instrumental, along with Crabb Robinson, in procuring the funds for establishing the Flaxman Gallery, now at University College London.