John Flaxman

“ The record of Flaxman’s life is henceforth an uneventful record of private affection and contentment, and of happy and tenacious industry, with reward not brilliant but sufficient, and repute not loud but loudest in the mouths of those whose praise was best worth having—Canova, Schlegel, Fuseli. He took for pupil a son of Hayley’s, who presently afterwards sickened and died. In 1797 he was made an associate of the Royal Academy. ”

“ The two special encouragers of his youth were the painter Romney, and a cultivated clergyman, Mr Mathew, with his wife, in whose house in Rathbone Place the young Flaxman used to meet the best “blue-stocking” society of those days, and, among associates of his own age, the artists Blake and Stothard, who became his closest friends. Before this he had begun to work with precocious success in clay as well as in pencil. At twelve years old he won the first prize of the Society of Arts for a medal, and became a public exhibitor in the gallery of the Free Society of Artists ”

“ FLAXMAN, JOHN (1756–1826) , sculptor and draughtsman, was born at York on 6 July 1755. According to a family tradition four brothers Flaxman, coming from Norfolk, had fought against the king at Naseby, and the youngest of the four, named John, had settled as a farmer and carrier in Buckinghamshire. From him was descended another John, who towards the middle of the eighteenth century carried on, partly in London and partly in the provinces, the trade of a maker and seller of plaster casts. ”

“ Paul’s, and many other of our cathedrals and churches that his genius found its highest expression. In his work as an artist Blake was largely influenced by Flaxman. They and Stothard used to meet at Mrs. Mathew’s; but there came a day when the friendship between these three was broken. Blake thought Flaxman had appropriated one of his designs, and there seems no doubt that Stothard did so, on the prompting of an unscrupulous picture-dealer ”

“ A much more cautious method was the commoner, which consisted of running out a small bank from the shore a few yards and returning to the shore again, then from some point on that line other essays were made until a large area was enclosed. Not unfrequently the earlier banks were cleared away for material to be used up again. In some old deeds this was expressly prohibited. A row of old manor ways which have long been superseded when ending in a line may be seen to indicate the termination of the fresh marsh. Some of these ways are still called walls, though now levelled. ”

“ They are the result of the slow and creeping work of centuries. When the country was occupied by the Romans the low lands of the Thames were dry, that is not invaded with salt water. The river was fresh and very shallow, with meandering streams from the uplands adjacent. Large trees hundreds of years old, of such kinds as we have now growing, covered the bottoms and spread over the area of the present marshland, and everywhere are found Roman remains, pottery, and flint and chalk used in building. This level, which is a little below the Ordnance datum, may be called the Roman level. ”

“ In the earlier part of their existence the walls were thrown up to win the land from the water, and it was not until the union of the parallel walls had been nearly or quite completed, that it was perceived that a much more important thing to the country at large had occurred, viz., the deepening and straightening of the common water-way. ”

“ Of such are the 'Farthing,' 'Ham,' and 'Meads' walls at Cliffe. Not much enclosure is practised now, but the end of the last century saw some extensive efforts at re-embanking at Slayhill and Milford Hope. But with the wash of the sea consequent on the destruction of some islands which acted as breakwaters, little good can now come of such labours so far down. ”

“ The sculptor and his wife left Italy in the summer of 1794, and travelled to England without any such molestation as they apprehended from the disturbed state of the continent. They established themselves in a house in Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, where Flaxman continued to live until his death. A son of Hayley's, who showed some talent for art, was placed with him as a pupil, but within a few years died of a decline, and is commemorated by a small memorial relief, in Flaxman's best manner, in Eartham Church. ”

“ Flaxman replied recklessly that any decent fellow in the neighbourhood was welcome to shoot his birds—a reply which almost brought upon him the resignation of the outraged keeper by return of post. Lady Charlotte wrote and remonstrated with him for neglecting a landowner's duties, inquiring at the same time what he meant to do with regard to 'that young lady.' To which Flaxman replied calmly that he had just come back from the Lakes, where he had done, not indeed all that he meant to do, but still something. ”

“ I am not the less glad to have been the occasion to you of pleasant thoughts, and I delight in the genuine admiration you express of that ideal beauty which haunts us ever and makes actual life look sometimes like the coarsest caricature. I like very well what you say of Flaxman, and shall give him the greater heed. And indeed who can see the works of a great artist without feeling that not so much the private as the common wealth is by him indicated. ”

“ Flaxman, expressing my surprise that he should so patiently endure my ignorance, and stupidity.
"It is just like him. He has a world of patience with any one really trying to do good work. I think he begins to understand you better. He is prejudiced against our sex in the mass. He thinks we are more fond of pleasure than of anything else in the world; but if he once finds his mistake, his atonement is complete."
"Why is he so prejudiced?" I asked, hoping Mrs. Flaxman would continue the story Thomas had begun. ”

“ Flaxman, brother to a pretty little neighbor of ours in Surrey—Lady Helen Varley—and nephew to Lady Charlotte. I have not seen him here before; but I think the girls like him.’
‘Is he the Flaxman who got the mathematical prize at Berlin last year?’
‘Yes, I believe so. A striking person altogether. He is enormously rich, Lady Helen tells me, in spite of an elder brother. All the money in his mother’s family has come to him, and he is the heir to Lord Daniel’s great Derbyshire property. ”

“ Flaxman, one evening as we drove home under the midnight stars, after one of these entertainments.
"My child, it is natural that people should talk on subjects that most interest them. Not every one has vision clear enough to penetrate beyond the tangible and visible."
"Then, in what are the Cavendish aristocracy better than Mrs. Blake, and that class? Even she talks sometimes to me about God and the soul. She says she and Daniel think a great deal about these of late."
"God only knows; they may be far better in His sight than any of us," Mrs. Flaxman said, wearily. ”

“ If man only would, he could, you say, solve all the problems which oppress him. It is man’s will which is eternally defective, eternally inadequate. Well, the great religions of the world are the stimulants by which the power at the root of things has worked upon this sluggish instrument of human destiny. Without religion you cannot make the will equal to its tasks. Our present religion fails us; we must, we will have another!’
He rose, and began to pace along the sands, now gently glowing in the warm September evening, Flaxman beside him. ”

“ THE FLAX
The flax was in full bloom; it had pretty little blue flowers as delicate as the wings of a moth, or even more so. The sun shone, and the showers watered it, so that it became very beautiful.
“People say that I look exceedingly well,” said the flax, “and that I am so fine and long, that I shall make an excellent piece of linen. How fortunate I am! it makes me so happy; it is such a pleasant thing to know that something can be made of me. How the sunshine cheers me, and how sweet and refreshing is the rain! no one in the world can feel happier than I do.” ”

“ The latter came to stay with him, and, distressed at the nervous and ailing state in which he found his father, carried him off for a short visit to the Isle of Wight. Flaxman returned from Rome later in the year, and took a lodging in London ‘in the neighbourhood of our dear Romney.’ One of the painter's most interesting pictures of 1795 is the group of Flaxman, with his pupil, Hayley's young son, beside him, modelling a bust of the poet, while Romney looks on. ”

“ For imaginary or abstract woe you should seek some older helper. I would suggest Mrs. Flaxman. She has more patience with refined mourners than I."
"Mrs. Flaxman could do me no good."
Tears stood in her eyes, making them more beautiful than ever, and quite softening my heart.
"Won't you lay aside some of your wraps? I shall feel then as if you will not desert me at any moment. The room is warm, and they are only an incumbrance." ”

“ He lounged out of the room, while Lady Charlotte shrugged her shoulders with a look at her nephew in which there was an irrepressible twinkle. Mr. Flaxman neither heard nor saw. Life would have ceased to be worth having long ago had he ever taken sides in the smallest degree in this ménage. ”

“ At last it was put on the spinning-wheel. “Whirr, whirr,” went the wheel, so quickly that the flax could not collect its thoughts.
“Well, I have been very happy,” he thought in the midst of his pain, “and must be contented with the past;” and contented he remained till he was put on the loom, and became a beautiful piece of white linen. All the flax, even to the last stalk, was used in making this one piece. “How wonderful it is that, after all I have suffered, I am made something of at last; I am the luckiest person in the world—so strong and fine ”

“ Whatever comes of it, Flaxman said to himself with strong, involuntary conviction, ‘whether he fails or no, the spirit that is moving here is the same spirit that spread the Church, the spirit that sent out Benedictine and Franciscan into the world, that fired the children of Luther, or Calvin, or George Fox; the spirit of devotion, through a man, to an idea ”

“ I have seen our excellent Flaxman lately; he is well in health, but has had such a burn on his hand as you had once, which has hindered his working for a fortnight. It is now better; he desires to be most affectionately remembered to you; he began a letter to you a week ago; perhaps by this time you have received it; but he is also a laborious votary of endless work. Engraving is of so slow process, I must beg of you to give me the earliest possible notice of what engraving is to be done for the Life of Romney. ”

“ The fallacy is in supposing that all that the first naked or hasty observation does not give, is supplied by science and general theories, and not by a closer and continued observation of the thing itself, so that all that belongs to the latter department is necessarily casual and slight.
Mr. Flaxman enforces the same argument by quoting the rules laid down by Vitruvius, for ascertaining the true principles of form and motion. ”

“ Abbott," said she. "Everybody knows you are a high-minded, good woman; but I always thought you were rather too easy with your children: you don't know how Bert and Lucy behave when they are out of your sight; and I felt it my duty to come and tell you about this! I—"
"O! O! O!" struck in Flaxie, distressed by the sad faces around her; "I wish I's dead! I wish we's all dead and gone to heaven!"
Of course Flaxie's tears were of no more consequence than so much rain-water; but her mother had to take her in her arms and soothe her, while Aunt Jane answered Mrs. Prim. ”

“ Mrs. Flaxman interposed desperately. "I think Mr. Winthrop had better permit you to go to New York for some additions to your toilet."
"I will accompany her myself; she might get entangled with widowers on her next trip."
"Not if they are as provoking as the unmarried," I murmured below my breath; but he seemed to catch my meaning.
"They understand the art of pleasing your sex amazingly. I believe you would find them more fascinating than Mrs. Blake, or your new friend, the widow Larkum." ”

“ After his marriage in August 1782 (which has been said to have displeased his father, though Tatham says it was 'with the approbation and consent of his parents') , Blake took lodgings at 23 Green Street, Leicester Fields (now pulled down) , which was only the square's length away from Sir Joshua Reynolds. Flaxman had married in 1781, and had taken a house at 27 Wardour Street and it was probably he who, about this time, introduced Blake to 'the accomplished Mrs. Matthew,' whose drawing-room in Rathbone Place was frequented by literary and artistic people. Mr. ”

“ Flaxman's charming sister, Lady Helen Varley, and her husband; his elder brother, Lord Wanless, unmarried, an expert on armour, slightly eccentric, but still, in the eyes of all intriguing mothers, and to his own annoyance, more than desirable as a husband owing to the Wanless collieries and a few other trifles of the same kind; the Bishop of Markborough; Canon France and his sister; a young poet whose very delicate muse had lodged itself oddly in the frame of an athlete ”

“ We shall never be able to leave Flaxie in charge of any thing; you might as well set a squirrel to watch a weasel," said Dr. Gray.
"I know it," replied his wife; "but I never saw a child six years old that could take charge of any thing, did you?"
Flaxie began to call for her supper the moment her father and mother and little Phil were out of sight.
"'Cause there's queam-cakes, too, I saw 'em. And then I guess I'd better go see Lucy; she's spectin' me."
[163]
"No, ma'am, Flaxie Frizzle," said Preston, firmly. "You're not going further than the weeping-willow this day ”