208 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



is more pure, and in a truer antique Taste than any of 

 their performances, though they have so many fine 

 models before them." 



For twelve years of his life, from his twentieth to 

 his thirty-second year (1775-1787), Flaxman principally 

 subsisted through his employment for the firm of Wedg- 

 wood and Company. He did some of their most exqui- 

 site works, for which they paid him liberally. His 

 portraits included those of Benjamin Franklin and Dr. 

 Johnson ; the latter is said to be one of the finest ever 

 perfected by Wedgwood. In 1781 he finished two 

 busts of Eousseau and Sterne, and modelled a bust 

 of Dr. Fothergill. In the following year (1782) he 

 modelled a very fine bust of Mrs. Siddons, and finished 

 the cast of a fragment of Phidias. In that year he had 

 the two sons of Wedgwood as pupils ; but Flaxman, 

 because of the munificence of Wedgwood, did not desire 

 to receive any remuneration for the lessons he gave 

 them. A correspondence took place on the subject. 

 Flaxman's first letter was as follows : 



"27 Wardour Street, 8th July 1782. Sir As you 

 desire a list of the orders you have given me, which 

 are not yet completed, I have taken the liberty to 

 trouble you, as I should be deficient in gratitude to 

 your Liberality and Friendship if I permitted you to 

 receive them by any other means, especially as my 

 absence whilst you were in London requires an apology. 

 This I could not avoid, because the time was appointed 

 that I should settle some particular chimneypieces for 



