John Flaxman R.A. (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several years in Rome, where he produced his first book illustrations. He was a prolific maker of funerary monuments.
He was commissioned to carve Sophia's monument which is on a wall in St Leonard's Church, Streatham.
Sophia was the seventh child of Henry and Hester Thrale of "Streatham Park"
The relief shows "her husband weeping” by her bed, her sisters kneeling at the foot, and a flying angel beckoning her to heaven." He adds that it was sculpted” by Flaxman, "whom William Blake called the sculptor of eternity"
(Arthur Mee and Victorian Web, Image by William Daniell, after George Dance NPG D12064 © National Portrait Gallery, London)
