![Samuel Johnson by Joseph Nollekens 1777](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Samuel_Johnson_by_Joseph_Nollekens_1777.jpg)
Joseph Nollekens
R.A. (11 August 1737 – 23 April 1823)
was a
sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
from
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
generally considered to be the finest British sculptor of the late 18th century.
Life
Nollekens was born on 11 August 1737 at
28 Dean Street,
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
, London,
the son of the
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
painter
Josef Frans Nollekens (1702–1748) who had moved from
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, to London in 1733.
He studied first under another Flemish immigrant in London, the sculptor
Peter Scheemakers
Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger (10 January 1691 – 12 September 1781) was a Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicist style had an important influenc ...
, before studying and working as an antiques dealer, restorer and copier in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
from 1760 or 1762.
The sculptures he made in Rome included a marble of ''Timocles Before Alexander'', for which he was awarded fifty guineas by the Society of Arts, and busts of
Laurence Sterne
Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768), was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric who wrote the novels ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'' and ''A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy'', published ...
and
David Garrick
David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Sa ...
, who were visiting the city.
On his return to London in 1770 he set up as a maker of
bust
Bust commonly refers to:
* A woman's breasts
* Bust (sculpture), of head and shoulders
* An arrest
Bust may also refer to:
Places
* Bust, Bas-Rhin, a city in France
*Lashkargah, Afghanistan, known as Bust historically
Media
* ''Bust'' (magazin ...
s and monuments at 9, Mortimer Street,
where he built up a large practice. Although he preferred working on mythological subjects, it was through his portrait busts that he became famous and one of the most fashionable portrait sculptors in Britain.
In 1772 he married Mary, daughter of the judge and grocer
Saunders Welch.
He enjoyed the patronage of king
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
and went on to sculpt a number of British political figures, including George III himself,
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...
,
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the arch-riv ...
, the
Duke of Bedford
Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third so ...
and
Charles Watson-Wentworth. He also made busts of figures from the arts such as
Benjamin West
Benjamin West, (October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was a British-American artist who painted famous historical scenes such as '' The Death of Nelson'', ''The Death of General Wolfe'', the '' Treaty of Paris'', and '' Benjamin Franklin Drawin ...
. Most of his subjects were represented in classical costume.
''Faith'', a sculpture commissioned by Henry Howard following the death of his wife Maria in 1788 in childbirth at Corby Castle, is said to be Nollekens' finest work. The sculpture can be seen in the Howard Chapel at the Parish Church of
Wetheral
Wetheral is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in Cumbria, England. At the 2001 census, the population of the Wetheral Ward was 4,039, The civil parish of Wetheral is slightly larger, with a population of 5,203. being counted as 4,541 ...
, Cumbria.
![Faith by Joseph Nollekens](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Faith_by_Joseph_Nollekens.JPG)
Although he took great care over the modelling of the details of his sculptures, the marble versions were normally made by assistants, such as
Sebastian Gahagan
Sebastian Gahagan (1779 – 2 March 1838) was a sculptor of Irish descent active in London. His most notable works are the monument to Sir Thomas Picton in St Paul's Cathedral, and a statue of the Duke of Kent in Park Crescent, Portland Place. He ...
who carved Nollekens' statue of William Pitt for the Senate House at Cambridge,
and L. Alexander Goblet. Some subjects were produced in large numbers: more than 70 replicas of Nollekens' bust of Pitt are known.
Nollekens became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1771 and a full academician the following year.
Painted around that time, his portrait by the celebrated artist
Mary Moser
Mary Moser (27 October 1744 – 2 May 1819) was an English painter and one of the most celebrated female artists of 18th-century Britain. One of only two female founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768 (along with Angelica Kauffman), Mose ...
now hangs in the
Yale Center for British Art
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...
.
Death
He died in London in 1823, having made a considerable fortune from his work; he left around £200,000 in his will. He is buried in Paddington Parish Church with a monument by
William Behnes
William Behnes (1795 – 3 January 1864) was a British sculptor of the early 19th century.
Life
Born in London, Behnes was the son of a Hanoverian piano-maker and his English wife. His brother was Henry Behnes, also a sculptor, albeit an i ...
.
A biography ''Nollekens and his Times''
by his executor
John Thomas Smith was published in 1828, portraying him as a grotesque miser. It has been described as "perhaps the most candid biography ever published in the English language."
It has been suggested he was the model for the miser Briggs in ''Cecilia''.
No. 44 Mortimer Street in
Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia () is a district of central London, England, near the West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urban ...
stands on the site of the house where Nollekens died and has a
blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
commemorating him.
American poet
Randall Jarrell
Randall Jarrell (May 6, 1914 – October 14, 1965) was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—a position that now bears the title Poe ...
commemorated Nollekens in his poem entitled "Nollekens", collected in his 1956 volume ''Selected Poems''.
References
Sources
*
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
Joseph Nollekens (Getty Museum)Three goddesses, Nollekens (Getty Museum)''Europe in the age of enlightenment and revolution'' a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Nollekens (see index)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nollekens, Joseph
1737 births
1823 deaths
18th-century British sculptors
18th-century English male artists
19th-century British sculptors
19th-century English male artists
British male sculptors
English people of Flemish descent
Royal Academicians
Sculptors from London