Known by many who knew him as The Leicestershire Artist, John Flower was baptised in the Parish Church of St Mary de Castro in October 1793.

Flower came from a family which had been the owners of the Castle Mill, below the church and castle, on the River Soar for several generations.  Both the mill and the mill's shop in the Saturday Market had been bequeathed to Jane Flower in 1748 by Thomas Carter, a descendant and heir of the Member of Parliament Lawrence Wright, who had purchased the mill from the Leicester Corporation in 1685.  The Flower family still held the mill in 1843 according to Cook's Guide to Leicester but a new miller, one Joseph Pywell, was occupying the premises by 1845 according to White's Directory of Leicester.

By Flower's time, the family had suffered a decline in status owing to his father's early death, and they were earning a living as woolcombers.  In 1806, at the age of thirteen, Flower was apprenticed to a framework knitter, but his potential artistic talent was noticed by Mary Linwood who, in 1816, arranged for Flower to receive lessons from Peter de Wint (1784-1849) in London.

The High Cross (c.1830)

The public house to the right of the High Cross remains today, as does the shop to the left of the public house and the Old Grammar School
in the distance.

On returning to Leicester as a qualified artist, Flower was able to work as a teacher of drawing from his own home in Marble Street.  He charged a fee of one guinea a week for two lessons in the student's home, or three lessons at his house.

Flower married Frances Clark in 1813. A daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1816, but two further children died in infancy.

He worked chiefly in watercolours, pencils and wash. Although Flower's landscapes are characterised by their true reflection of nature, with inimitable foliage, rock scenery and excellent colouring, his main forte was architecture. John Flower's pictures of buildings are seen by many to be without equal. Indeed, were it not for Flower's drawings of the town (published in Views of Ancient Buildings in the Town and County of Leicester in 1826) the knowledge we have to day of the buildings and architectural character of eighteenth-century Leicester would not be nearly so great.

In 1827, Flower moved to Southgate Street. He may have kept a studio there after moving to New Walk in about 1842. Nine years later he moved again into his newly-built home at 88 Upper Regent Street (now 100 Regent Road) which was designed for him by the well-known Leicester-based architect Henry Goddard.  This building is a substantial double-fronted neo-Jacobean structure which is now used as business offices.

In 1827 he was invited to take up the post of Drawing Master at the Proprietary School in New Walk (which is now the main building of the Museum and Art Gallery which holds some of his work). However, Flower turned down the appointment which was subsequently given to the artist J.F.Lee.  However, Flower did teach drawing at a school in Ullesthorpe and at Ratcliffe College.

He died on 29 November 1861 at his home. A blue plaque commemorates the building's association with the artist. He was buried in Welford Road cemetery, the funeral service having been conducted by Revd Charles Berry of the Great Meeting of which Flower had been a member for over forty years.