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Model, Sir Joshua Reynolds, for the statue in St Paul's Cathedral (see also SDR10)
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SM M1181. ©Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Photo: Art UK
John Flaxman RA (1755 - 1826), sculptor
Model, Sir Joshua Reynolds, for the statue in St Paul's Cathedral (see also SDR10)
Plaster
Height: 122cm
Width: 45.7cm
Depth: 38.1cm
Width: 45.7cm
Depth: 38.1cm
Museum number: M1181
On display: Colonnade - central aisle
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
Flaxman was commissioned to produce this full-size statue as one of four ‘benefactors of the English people’ to be placed beneath the crossing of St Paul’s Cathedral. The other three statues were by John Bacon the elder and were of John Howard the prison reformer, Dr Samuel Johnson and the orientalist Sir William Jones. Flaxman had known Reynolds and his image of him has great conviction: it was praised during Flaxman’s lifetime for its ‘noble bearing’. Beneath Reynolds’ left hand, carved on a column, is a relief of Michelangelo - the artist Reynolds most admired.
Literature
Helen Dorey ‘Soane and Flaxman’ in Flaxman: Master of the Purest Line, Exhibition Catalogue, Sir John Soane’s Museum 2003
Exhibition history
Joshua Reynolds: the Creation of Celebrity, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara 12 February - 1 May 2005; Tate Britain, London, 26 May - 25 September 2005
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