DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22422#0329
Letter XX.
DRAWINGS BY FLAXMAN.
317
LETTEE XX.
Drawings by Flaxman in possession of Miss Denman — Sculptures by Flax-
man in University College — Sir John Soane's Museum — Society of
Arts — Barry's paintings — The Temple Church — Crosby Hall — St.
Paul's Cathedral — Objects of art contained in the East India House :
Indian sculpture, weapons, copies of pictures ; Indian, Persian, and Chinese
miniatures — Society of Antiquaries: miscellaneous articles, mediasval
objects, coins, pictures — St. Stephen's, AValbrook — Barbers' Hall : Hol-
bein— Bridewell Hospital: Holbein — Collection of pictures and objects
of art belonging to Mr. Bale — William Hamilton, Esq. : Pistrucci — Mr.
Hall: drawings — Mr. Townley : miniatures — Sir Frankland Lewis—
Names of various collectors in London.
DRAWINGS BY FLAXMAN IN THE POSSESSION OF
MISS DENMAN.
Familiar from early childhood with Flaxman's designs from
Homer and iEschylus, which were in my father's library, I expe-
rienced the greatest gratification in making acquaintance with
the collection of drawings bequeathed by the great sculptor to
his sister-in-law and adopted daughter Miss Denman, to whom I
was introduced by my friend Mr. George Scharf, jun. From the
Homer and YEschylus, as well as from the Dante which I studied
later in life, I had already formed the highest conception of the
purity of his feeling for beauty of form and grace of movement,
but my admiration for him, not only as an artist, but as a man,
increased more and more as I examined the large number of
drawings wrhich Miss Denman laid before me, accompanying them
as she did with illustrative remarks of the most interesting descrip-
tion. Above all I was astonished with the fertility and variety of
his inventive powers, wrhich extended beyond his own peculiar
department of classic history or mythology into the field of Christian
art, of allegory, of domestic life, and even to that of modern
romance, in the shape of a series of very attractive compositions
from Wieland's Oberon, conceived entirely in the spirit of the
poem. Of his compositions of a classic nature before unknown
to me, the designs for Hesiod were the most remarkable. They
DRAWINGS BY FLAXMAN.
317
LETTEE XX.
Drawings by Flaxman in possession of Miss Denman — Sculptures by Flax-
man in University College — Sir John Soane's Museum — Society of
Arts — Barry's paintings — The Temple Church — Crosby Hall — St.
Paul's Cathedral — Objects of art contained in the East India House :
Indian sculpture, weapons, copies of pictures ; Indian, Persian, and Chinese
miniatures — Society of Antiquaries: miscellaneous articles, mediasval
objects, coins, pictures — St. Stephen's, AValbrook — Barbers' Hall : Hol-
bein— Bridewell Hospital: Holbein — Collection of pictures and objects
of art belonging to Mr. Bale — William Hamilton, Esq. : Pistrucci — Mr.
Hall: drawings — Mr. Townley : miniatures — Sir Frankland Lewis—
Names of various collectors in London.
DRAWINGS BY FLAXMAN IN THE POSSESSION OF
MISS DENMAN.
Familiar from early childhood with Flaxman's designs from
Homer and iEschylus, which were in my father's library, I expe-
rienced the greatest gratification in making acquaintance with
the collection of drawings bequeathed by the great sculptor to
his sister-in-law and adopted daughter Miss Denman, to whom I
was introduced by my friend Mr. George Scharf, jun. From the
Homer and YEschylus, as well as from the Dante which I studied
later in life, I had already formed the highest conception of the
purity of his feeling for beauty of form and grace of movement,
but my admiration for him, not only as an artist, but as a man,
increased more and more as I examined the large number of
drawings wrhich Miss Denman laid before me, accompanying them
as she did with illustrative remarks of the most interesting descrip-
tion. Above all I was astonished with the fertility and variety of
his inventive powers, wrhich extended beyond his own peculiar
department of classic history or mythology into the field of Christian
art, of allegory, of domestic life, and even to that of modern
romance, in the shape of a series of very attractive compositions
from Wieland's Oberon, conceived entirely in the spirit of the
poem. Of his compositions of a classic nature before unknown
to me, the designs for Hesiod were the most remarkable. They