JOSEPH, a distinguished English sculptor, was born at London, on the 11th of August 1737. His father, a native of Antwerp, was a painter by profession, and is mentioned by Horace Walpole, under the name of Old Nollekens, as an artist of some repute. He died whilst Joseph was still very young, and his widow having married again soon after his decease, the education of the youthful sculptor was much neglected. In his thirteenth year we find him in the studio of Scheemakers, where he exhibited his passion for his art by drawing and modelling early and late with the utmost assiduity. As his powers expanded, he became a candidate for the prizes offered to rising genius by the Society of Arts, which in the year 1759 gave him a premium of fifteen guineas for a group of figures in clay; in 1760 they presented him with thirty guineas for a bas-relief; and during the same year they gave him ten guineas more for a model in clay of a dancing faun. He now began to attract considerable notice, as much on account of his quiet, mild, inoffensive appearance, as from the unquestionable cleverness of his productions; and Garrick, proverbially an observer of character, set down Joseph as a rising man of genius. No artist was ever greeted with even the comparatively limited applause which the works of this young sculptor elicited, without longing to visit those miracles of genius which are treasured in the land where art, like one of the native deities, sprung forth at once; nor was Nollekens an exception to the rule. In his twenty-third year, we find him in Rome, friendless, and nearly reduced to want, but enthusiastically pursuing his vocation. He modelled and carved in stone a bas-relief which brought him ten guineas in England; and in the following year, his group of Timotheus before Alexander, in marble, was honoured by the Society of Arts with a premium of fifty guineas. This success placed him above absolute dependence; and he was now noticed by the artists in Rome, particularly Barry, and also by some English visitors, amongst whom were Garrick and Sterne. The great English actor recognised him one day in the Vatican, invited him to breakfast next morning, and ended by sitting to him for his bust, for the model of which Garrick paid twelve guineas to the artist. Sterne likewise sat to him at Rome; and the bust of the wit, which is in terracotta, is considered as an admirable likeness. To the last hour of his life Nollekens alluded to it with pleasure. "Dance," he used to say, "made my picture with my hand leaning on Sterne's head; he was right."

But Nollekens, if he did not discover, profited by other means of enriching himself, which were less laborious than cutting out beautiful forms from the marble. In 1761, fragments of antique sculpture were more frequently to be met with in Rome and its vicinity; and legs, arms, heads, and other members of the body, strewed about like wrecks, when collected and put together with skill, were sold at very considerable prices. Joseph being sprung of a race of picture-makers and sellers, his spirit for bargaining was probably never surpassed; and this, with his proficiency as a sculptor, enabled him not only to collect the best fragments at the most reasonable prices, but to supply deficiencies, and put them together to the greatest advantage. That this proved a most successful speculation, the following anecdote, amongst many of the same kind which might be related, will sufficiently show. A loose head of Minerva, which even Englishmen would not purchase, lay on the shelf of a regular dealer in such articles, where it attracted the attention of Nollekens. It happened that the body of the same, or some other heathen goddess, was brought to light, and purchased by him for fifty guineas. A consultation was held with his brother dealer; the head and trunk were found of similar proportions, and the sculptor undertook to unite them as neatly as if they had both been chiseled from the same block of marble. This he accomplished, and Minerva stood forth restored. "It was sold," says his biographer and executor, Mr Smith, "for the enormous sum of one thousand guineas, and is now at Newly, in Yorkshire." A few speculations equally profitable would soon have raised the artist to affluence. He was, besides, liberally patronised by his countrymen who annually migrated to the capital of Italy, and for whom he executed many considerable works in marble, of which Mercury and Venus chiding Cupid are considered as the best. For all his productions he received immediate and liberal payment. Early misfortunes had made Nollekens acquainted with privation. Being an economist from necessity, he became frugal from habit; and this continued to influence his conduct when the necessity for parsimony no longer existed. He lived at Rome in a very humble manner, and after ten years of profitable study, he returned to London comparatively rich.

Nollekens was now prepared to commence business upon his own account, and accordingly he took a lease of extensive premises in Mortimer Street. The busts of Sterne and Garrick had spread his fame in his native country, and he no sooner opened his doors than orders came in abundance. In 1771 he was admitted an associate of the Royal Academy, and in the following year was elected a member, much to the satisfaction of George III., who soon afterwards honoured the artist by sitting for his bust. The history of a man of genius is that of his works; and the few events which diversify his career, besides the successive appearance of his productions, serve but little to relieve its characteristic monotony. Amongst these the choice of a partner for life is probably the most important. Nollekens was not unfortunate in this respect. The lady of his choice was the friend of Samuel Johnson, and, if report in aught be credited, the great critic was not insensible to her charms. Mrs Nollekens was endowed with no small share of that parsimonious spirit which her husband is said to have been so abundantly gifted withal, and was quite of his opinion as to one material point, namely, that the accumulation of wealth is not the least of our terrestrial pleasures. Nollekens was fully aware that his strength lay in busts; and as this line of art was an exceedingly profitable one, it may readily be supposed that his time and talents were principally devoted to it. Amongst his sitters were the great, the beautiful, and the titled of the land; and his profits were commensurate with the condition of his employers. He also found leisure to work out, slowly and with much care, marble groups and statues, amongst which may be mentioned those of Bacchus, Venus taking off her sandal, Hope leaning on an urn, Juno, Petrus and Arria, and Cupid and Psyche. His portraits were excellent, and there was generally a gentleness in the expression, and a gracefulness in the handling, which never failed to please. The likenesses of his busts were acknowledged by all, and the prettiness of the statues could not fail to be as generally admitted. But original vigour was wanting. He was one in whom the merely imitative faculty infinitely surpassed the imaginative. He could transfer to the marble, with the most perfect certainty and success, the features of a sitter; but he could not impart to the works of his hands that ideal beauty which etherealizes the subject, and is equal to the creation of a whole dynasty of gods and goddesses. As his strength lay in the sculpture of busts, so he pursued it with unparalleled success, and his studio became a fashionable lounge for those who reckoned their heads of sufficient importance to their friends or their country to have them modelled and cut in marble.

Towards his sitters, even the most exalted personages, he conducted himself with exceeding homeliness. Nollekens was all his life an unsophisticated child of nature, and his manners would no doubt appear very uncouth, perhaps vulgar, to that class of people who were accustomed to the dignified respect of Reynolds, or have since admired the courtly attentions of Lawrence. He had too much knowledge of human nature, however, not in his own blunt manner to employ flattery for the purpose of securing steadiness or a good position in the sitter.

The want of imagination Nollekens partially supplied by a diligent study of the antique; and hence, whilst every statue surpassed its predecessor in deficiency of workmanship, the artist only attained eminence by incessant labour. He was not one of those prodigies who reach their zenith as it were at the first flight. He was probably as little indebted to nature as most men who have attained greatness; but never-failing zeal for his profession, joined to unflinching industry, would have raised to distinction a less promising artist than Nollekens. During a period of ten years, from 1776 to 1786, he exhibited sixteen busts; five statues, and four groups, some of which were not in marble. The statues were those of Juno, Diana, Adonis, Cupid, and Mercury, in which he followed the beaten track, without attempting anything new. Amongst his monumental effigies may be mentioned that which commemorated the three commanders who fell in Rodney's great battle of the 12th April 1782. This being one of the government statues, the choice of the sculptor rested with the Royal Academy, and, after a fair competition, the design of Nollekens was that approved of. The monument is of large dimensions, and has a look of magnificence; but it is deficient in nature and sentiment, which can only be compensated to a limited extent by fine marble and fine workmanship. Another of his monumental works commemorates a lovely woman who died in childbirth, and in it Religion is by her side holding up her finger to heaven. This production has always been greatly admired for the simplicity and beauty of the design, and for the skilful manner in which it is executed. The love of the nation for busts seemed to increase with the supply, and Nollekens found ample employment for his talents. Between 1786 and 1800, he sent some dozen of these to the exhibition; but during that period he is well known to have executed thrice as many more, his prices increasing with his fame, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty guineas. From his Venuses and other statues of that description, we pass on to those productions which were more suitable to the genius of the artist. The ten years which followed 1800 were the busiest in the life of Nollekens; for although he was between sixty and seventy years of age, he continued to work with the same diligence and skill as in his youth. Upwards of fifty busts proceeded from his chisel, besides nearly a score of groups and statues. Amongst the former were the famous heads of Pitt and Fox, those of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., Dr Burney, the Marquis of Stafford, the Duke of Bedford, and others. Of the twenty statues and groups, the statue of Pitt for Cambridge attracted most attention at the time. The Venus anointing herself, however, was the favourite work of Nollekens, though it is deficient both in originality and in propriety of action. The workmanship of the statue, however, is very fine.

By temperance and perpetual equanimity of mind, Nollekens, although declined into the vale of years, still laboured as assiduously as ever. From 1810 till 1816, the last year of his exertions, he modelled some thirty busts, not a few of which are ranked amongst the most valuable of his works. The principal heads are those of the Duke of York, Lords Castlereagh, Aberdeen, Erskine, Egremont, Liverpool; Canning; Perceval; Benjamin West, and Thomas Coutts the banker. In 1817 Nollekens lost his wife, but being above eighty years of age, he was beyond that period of life when grief can be very acutely felt; and it is even hinted by some of his biographers, that his natural parsimoniousness, not being kept alive by the example of his still more penurious lady, assumed a milder form. He became in every respect more liberal, and presents to the needy members of his profession, with donations to benevolent institutions connected with art, were occurrences not so uncommon as formerly. For several years he lingered in that state of listlessness in which the mind shares the decay of the body, and dissolution, being preceded only by a gradual and almost imperceptible sinking of the vital powers, when it does take place, may be said to be felt rather than observed. Nollekens departed this life on the 3rd of April 1823, leaving a fortune of some two hundred thousand pounds. This appears a vast sum indeed to have been accumulated by an artist; but several other distinguished ornaments of the profession have been even more liberally rewarded than he was, and have only left less because they were either less industrious or less economical.

With regard to the merits of Nollekens as an artist, little need be added to what has already been said. It was in bust sculpture that he most excelled; and here the chief attraction is ease and simplicity, whilst the chief defect is a want of dignity and sentiment. "There is little dignity," says his biographer, "but much truth; sometimes mechanic vigour, never exaggeration. It cannot be denied, however, that his vigour is often tame, his serenity languid; that his women are often beautiful without sentiment, and that in his men he is apt to miss that manly breadth of character which is the token of all that is great and noble." There is, however, some cant and affectation in all this. It is not the business of an artist to look into the soul or read the characters of men and women. He has to do only with material forms, and all that can be expected of him is to interpret faithfully, and fix permanently, that natural expression by which each individual is distinguished. Mr Nollekens, like Crabbe, was "nature's sternest painter, but her best." Adhering to strict truth, rather than dealing in sentiment, he did not feel himself at liberty to misinterpret the signs of natural expression according to the rank of his sitter, and give the intellectual grandeur of a forehead like Burke's to the features of Castlereagh because he was a lord, or to those of Mr Coutts because he was a banker and could afford to pay for it.