John Flaxman (1755–1826) was an English sculptor, draughtsman, and designer, and one of the most influential figures in British Neoclassicism. His importance lies as much in his role as a designer of sculpture as in the execution of carved works, and his impact extended well beyond Britain through the wide circulation of his designs.

Flaxman trained at the Royal Academy and developed a highly distinctive visual language characterised by linear clarity, simplified form, and an emphasis on outline over modelling. His approach drew heavily on antique relief sculpture, translated into a graphic idiom that proved especially suited to reproduction. Through his celebrated outline illustrations to Homer, Dante, and Aeschylus, Flaxman exerted a profound influence on European Neoclassical aesthetics.

In sculpture, Flaxman is best known for funerary monuments and relief compositions, often realised by professional carvers working to his designs. These works favour calm, emblematic gesture and narrative restraint, presenting death and commemoration through idealised classical form rather than emotional display. His monuments mark a decisive shift away from Baroque-derived naturalism toward a more abstracted, intellectual Neoclassicism.

Flaxman also played an important institutional role as Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy, where he shaped sculptural education in Britain for a generation. Through his designs, teaching, and theoretical influence, he stands as a central figure in the transformation of British sculpture at the turn of the nineteenth century.