Yet when Sir Joshua Reynolds--himself a
bachelor--met Flaxman shortly after his marriage, he said to him,
"So, Flaxman, I am told you are married; if so, sir, I tell you you
are ruined for an artist." Flaxman went straight home, sat down
beside his wife, took her hand in his, and said, "Ann, I am ruined
for an artist." "How so, John? How has it happened? and who has
done it?" "It happened," he replied, "in the church, and Ann
Denman has done it." He then told her of Sir Joshua's remark--
whose opinion was well known, and had often been expressed, that if
students would excel they must bring the whole powers of their mind
to bear upon their art, from the moment they rose until they went
to bed; and also, that no man could be a GREAT artist unless he
studied the grand works of Raffaelle, Michael Angelo, and others,
at Rome and Florence. "And I," said Flaxman, drawing up his little
figure to its full height, "_I_ would be a great artist." "And a
great artist you shall be," said his wife, "and visit Rome too, if
that be really necessary to make you great." "But how?" asked
Flaxman. "WORK AND ECONOMISE," rejoined the brave wife; "I will
never have it said that Ann Denman ruined John Flaxman for an
artist." And so it was determined by the pair that the journey to
Rome was to be made when their means would admit.
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