Overcoming handicaps

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.”