Turner, Wedgwood & Beyond at York Art Gallery

York Art Gallery has quietly opened its latest exhibition, 'Turner, Wedgwood & Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman', which ran from Friday 18 September and carries on until 17 January 2027. The headline piece is the one most likely to pull people in: J.M.W. Turner's 'Ulysses deriding Polyphemus – Homer's Odyssey', on loan from the National Gallery. It is a fitting centrepiece for a show that gathers more than 70 loans from museums and galleries across the UK alongside works from the gallery's own collection.

The exhibition is built around John Flaxman, the York-born sculptor, draughtsman, designer and illustrator who was one of the leading figures of the Neoclassical style in Britain and Europe. Born in York in 1755 and died in 1826, Flaxman's work is the thread that ties the show together, and the exhibition marks the 200th anniversary of his death. He spent years as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's ceramics, creating designs based on ancient models, and his early pieces include the 'Apotheosis of Homer' relief from 1778, 'Hercules in the Garden of Hesperides' from 1785 and 'The Dancing Hours'. In 1787, with Wedgwood's help, he went to Rome to study antiquity, intending to stay only two years but remaining until 1794. He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1800 and its first professor of sculpture in 1810.

Around that Flaxman core, the show pulls in a wide range of names. Alongside the Turner masterpiece, you will find 'The Fall of Anarchy' by Turner and 'Beatrice Addressing Dante from the Car' by William Blake, both on loan from Tate, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' 'Paolo and Francesca' from the Barber Institute of Fine Art. There is also work by Angelica Kauffman and William Etty. The Flaxman connection is made concrete through Wedgwood jasperware that he designed and modelled, sculptures from National Museums Liverpool, University College London and Sir John Soane's Museum, a selection of Wedgwood chess pieces from the V&A Wedgwood Collection, portraits from the V&A South Kensington and the National Portrait Gallery, his sculptural diploma 'Apollo and Marpessa', and his monumental 'Shield of Achilles' in gilded silver, from Koopman Rare Art.

It is worth knowing the gallery itself. York Art Gallery, officially the City Art Gallery, sits in Exhibition Square and has been running since 1882, housed in a Grade II listed building designed by Edward Taylor and managed by York Museums Trust. Its collections are broad, taking in Western European and British paintings, prints, watercolours, drawings and ceramics, with particular strength in British studio pottery, views of York and the work of William Etty. The numbers give you a sense of the scale: more than 1,000 paintings, over 5,000 pieces of British studio ceramics, more than 17,000 drawings, watercolours and prints, and over 3,000 decorative objects.

Behind the scenes, the exhibition was produced in collaboration with the Department of History of Art at the University of York, with Senior Curator Dr Beatrice Bertram and Professor Richard Johns co-curating it, and it comes with an academic publication. A programme of talks, workshops and events tied to its themes is due to be announced for the autumn and winter, so it is the kind of show that keeps growing the longer it stays up. The best part for a casual visit is that it is included in general admission, so there is no extra ticket to book.