John Flaxman

Born in York in 1755, John Flaxman was the son of a moulder and seller of plaster casts, an environment that sparked his early interest in art. Though sickly as a child and largely self-taught, he quickly showed prodigious talent, winning his first prize from the Society of Arts at age 12 and entering the Royal Academy as a student at 15. During these formative years, he befriended future artistic luminaries like William Blake and Thomas Stothard, forging connections that wo…