Design for large fireplace white tiles produced in Wedgwood's factory
19th century
Medium
Pen and black ink over graphite
Dimensions
mount: 11 7/16 x 8 1/8 in. (29 x 20.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Randolph Gunter, 1961
Accession Number
61.570.17
Tags
Art Historical Context
John Flaxman’s “Design for large fireplace white tiles produced in Wedgwood’s factory” offers a glimpse into the collaborative world of 19th-century decorative arts. A leading figure of British Neoclassicism, Flaxman supplied numerous designs to Josiah Wedgwood’s renowned pottery works, translating ancient Greek and Roman motifs into elegant, reproducible forms for everyday objects. This preparatory drawing, executed in pen and black ink over graphite, captures the precise outlines and figural elements—likely male figures—that would have been transferred onto large ceramic tiles destined for f...
About the Artist
John Flaxman · 1755–1826
John Flaxman (1755–1826) was born in York, England, the son of John Flaxman Sr., a moulder and seller of plaster casts who ran a studio in London's Covent Garden. Largely self-taught amid his father's stock of classical casts, with minimal formal schooling due to childhood illness, Flaxman displayed prodigious talent early on. At age 12, he won a Society of Arts prize for a medallion; by 15, anoth...