Dear History Reclaimed,
As an art historian and a (short) biographer of John Flaxman, I can confirm Professor Lawrence Goldman’s point (’Sir William Jones, John Flaxman and University College, Oxford’, 15 January 2025, https://historyreclaimed.co.uk/look-on-my-works-ye-mighty-and-despair-sir-william-jones-john-flaxman-and-university-college-oxford/) that there is precisely zero evidence linking John Flaxman to racism or the support of slavery.
As a close associate of both the famous abolitionist Josiah Wedgwood, and of William Hackwood, artist of the very
‘Flaxmanesque’ relief Am I Not a Man and a Brother?, this suggests personal sympathies very much at odds with this. The case is strengthened by Flaxman’s authorship of his famous and moving monument to Lord Mansfield in Westminster Abbey. Mansfield’s judgement in Somerset v Stewart (1772) ruled that it was illegal to enforce an enslaved person out of England and was a landmark in the abolitionist cause.
There is no tangible proof, however, that Flaxman himself was an abolitionist, and though I’d love it if he were, if I implied it I would fall into a similar trap as University College – and risk Professor Goldman’s justifiable ridicule!
Yours sincerely,
(Dr) Mark Stocker
