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
61.570.18
Tags
Art Historical Context
John Flaxman's *Design for Large Fireplace White Tiles Produced in Wedg's Factory* (19th century) exemplifies the neoclassical elegance that defined British decorative arts during the era. Flaxman, a renowned sculptor and designer closely associated with Josiah Wedgwood, created intricate patterns for ceramics that blended ancient Greek and Roman motifs with industrial production. This drawing, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (gift of Randolph Gunter,1961), served as a blueprint for mass-produced white tiles adorning grand fireplaces in Regency-era homes....
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...