NOLLEKENS, JOSEPH, was b. in London in 1737. His father, who was from Ant werp, and by profession a painter, died when he was young, and his mother, a French woman, not remaining long a widow, he received but little education. Being placed in the studio of Seheemakers, the sculptor, in Vine street, Piccadilly, he worked hard and made such progress that in 1759 the society of arts awarded him fifteen guineas for a group in clay; in 1760 thirty guineas for a bas-relief; and during the same year, ten guineas for a model in clay of a dancing faun. Soon after this Nollekens set out for Rome. He was then in his 23d year; his purse was light, he had no patron to support him; but he was independent in spirit, and had been trained to habits of economy. A bas-relief he carved in stone brought him ten guineas from England, and the society of arts voted him fiftyguineas for his group in marble of Timodea before Alexander. But one of the most important events for him, after settling in Rbme, was his meeting Gar• rick in the Vatican, who immediately recognized his countryman as the young sculptor to whom the prizes had been awarded by the society of arts, sat to him for his bust, and paid him handsomely for it. This was the first bust he had been commissioned to model, and it gave him the opportunity of ptoving where his strength lay. He also executed in Rome a bust of Sterne in terra cotta, which added greatly to his repu tation. After residing 10 years in Rome he returned to London, took a lease of extensive premises in Mortimer street, where he set up his studio; and the reputation ho had acquired in Rome was such that he immediately had full employment, and within a year (in 1771) was elected an associate of the academy. and a royal academician the fob
year. His forte was in modeling busts. Into these he infused much truth and character, and he has handed down the likenesses of most of the important personages who figured in this country in the end of the last and at the commencement of this century— of Samuel Johnson, who was his friend and frequent visito•—of Fox, Pitt, and other political characters. George III. also sat to him; and his manner, which exhibited pretty strongly what is popularly set down as blunt and manly English character, made him a great favorite with the king. Besides busts, Nollekens executed numerous commissions for public monument§ and statues. He was selected by the academy, with whom the choice lay, to execute the government commission of a monument to the three captains, Manners, Bayne, and Blair, who fell in Rodney's great battle of April 12, 1782; but in this he did not rise above the allegories of Neptune and his sea-horse, and Britannia and her lion. His statue -of Pitt for He also executed, eitkr in the course of his studies, or to meet the views of thOge connoisseurs who advocate high art, a considerable number of classical and mythological statues and groups, a faun, a Bacchus, five Venuses, Cupid and Psyche, news and Arrhi, etc. He died hi London, April 23, 1823. His wife, to whom he had been long married, and who had brought him some fortune, died a few years before him. He had no children, and his great wealth, upwards of 4:200,000, was left to certain friends, burdened with some legacies and annuities to his old assistants and servants.—Sec Cunningham's Lives of British Artists, rte. •