Lot Essay
This drawing and lot 20 reflect Flaxman's close links with the literary circle of Harriet Mathew, wife of the Rev. Anthony Stephen Mathew (1733-1824).
John Thomas Smith, writing of events in 1784, mentions 'the accomplished Mrs. Mathew, whose house, No.27 in Rathbone Place, was then frequented by most of the literary and talented people of the day', including Flaxman and William Blake (J.T. Smith, Nollekens and his Times, 1828, II, pp.454-5 reprinted in Bentley, op.cit., pp.455-6; see also Smith's A Book for a Rainy Day, 1845, pp.81-3, reprinted in Bentley, op.cit., pp.26-7). For portraits of her husband the Rev. A.S. Mathew see Bentley, op.cit., pl.IV and, a more finished drawing, D. Bindman, ed., John Flaxman, R.A., exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, and Royal Academy, London, 26 October - 9 December 1979, p.37, fig.16. According to Smith, Flaxman had known the Rev. A.S. Mathews since the age of eleven.
John Thomas Smith, writing of events in 1784, mentions 'the accomplished Mrs. Mathew, whose house, No.27 in Rathbone Place, was then frequented by most of the literary and talented people of the day', including Flaxman and William Blake (J.T. Smith, Nollekens and his Times, 1828, II, pp.454-5 reprinted in Bentley, op.cit., pp.455-6; see also Smith's A Book for a Rainy Day, 1845, pp.81-3, reprinted in Bentley, op.cit., pp.26-7). For portraits of her husband the Rev. A.S. Mathew see Bentley, op.cit., pl.IV and, a more finished drawing, D. Bindman, ed., John Flaxman, R.A., exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle, Hamburg, and Royal Academy, London, 26 October - 9 December 1979, p.37, fig.16. According to Smith, Flaxman had known the Rev. A.S. Mathews since the age of eleven.