Page:Nollekens and His Times, Volume 2.djvu/455

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FLAXMAN.
443

admirably expresses his blindness. 2. Dolon arrested as a spy by Diomedes and Ulysses. 3. The Death of Hector, in which are eight figures mourning over his body. 4. Alexander taking the cup from Philip, his physician, to whom Alexander has handed the accusation of an intention to poison him; wherein the Philosopher and aged Soldier are finely delineated. 5. Alceste about to preserve the life of her Husband, of whom and her Children she is taking leave; and the 6th represents her release from the Infernal Regions, and her restoration to her Husband by Hercules. The costume of the above drawings, and their effect of light and shade, prove the Artist's great attention to his subjects, even in his youth.

Mrs. Mathew also introduced young Flaxman to the late Mr. Knight, of Portland-place, who became his first employer as a Sculptor. For this gentleman he modelled a statue of Alexander the Great; and it is very remarkable, that my father, between whose knees little Flaxman had stood to request an impression of his seal, was the Sculptor selected by him to carve it. Mr. Flaxman's father had removed from New-street to a house in the Strand, opposite to Durham-yard, where Mr. Flaxman, Jun. became his lodger; but after his marriage, he took a small house in Wardour-street, now No. 27, and there he executed, as a Sculptor, many works for his friend Mr. Knight, who generously supplied him with money.

During his residence in this house, he was chosen by the Parish of St. Anne, in which he