Harriet Mathew wife of the Reverend Anthony Stephen Mathew (also known by the pseudonym Henry Mathew), was an 18th century London socialite and patron of the arts, who is considered an important early patron of John Flaxman

John Flaxman

John Flaxman was an English sculptor and draughtsman.-Early life:He was born in York. His father was also named John, after an ancestor who, according to family tradition, had fought for Parliament at the Battle of Naseby, and afterwards settled as a carrier or farmer in Buckinghamshire...

 and William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...

.

Alexander Gilchrist

Alexander Gilchrist

Alexander Gilchrist was the biographer of William Blake. Gilchrist's biography is still a standard reference work on the poet....

, in his Life of Blake, writes of her:
John Thomas Smith

John Thomas Smith (1766–1833)

John Thomas Smith also known as Antiquity Smith was a painter, engraver and antiquarian. He wrote a life of the sculptor Joseph Nollekens that was noted for its "malicious candour" and was a keeper of prints for the British Museum....

 was introduced to Blake by Mrs Mathew and heard him read and sing his poetry on several occasions; it was here that the qualities of his voice and reception of his audience were recorded in his contemporary biographical notes. Smith also notes she was "extremely zealous in promoting the celebrity of Blake" and as responsible, via her husband and his friends, for the printing of his Poetical Sketches

Poetical Sketches

Poetical Sketches is the first collection of poetry and prose by William Blake, written between 1769 and 1777. Forty copies were printed in 1783 with the help of Blake's friends, the artist John Flaxman and the Reverend Anthony Stephen Mathew, at the request of his wife Harriet Mathew...

(1783). Blake later satirised the Mathews, and the Johnson Circle and dinners, in 'An Island in the Moon

An Island in the Moon

An Island in the Moon is the name generally assigned to an untitled, unfinished prose satire by William Blake, written in late 1784. Containing early versions of three poems later included in Songs of Innocence and satirising the "contrived and empty productions of the contemporary culture", An...

'.

A vaguely detailed story regarding the Mathews early patronage of Flaxman was first given by J. T. Smith, and repeated by Blake and Flaxman's biographers. A collection of sketches bearing titles of 'Harriet Mathew' and her relations have been attributed to Flaxman.