Joseph, a distinguished English sculptor, was born in 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 repeatedly a successful candidate for the prizes offered to rising genius by the Society of Arts. 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 "Timocles 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 recognising 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 terra-cotta, is considered 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." He was liberally patronized 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. Nollekens about this time married a lady who was the friend of Samuel Johnson; and, if report may in ought be credited, the great critic was not insensible to her charms. 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," "Pæsus and Ariadne," 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 greatly surpassed the imaginative. The want of imagination Nollekens partially supplied, however, by a diligent study of the antique; and hence, whilst every statue surpassed its predecessor in delicacy of workmanship, the artist only attained eminence by incessant labour. 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. From his "Venus," 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 far-famed 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. 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. Nollekens died on the 23rd of April 1823, leaving a fortune of some two hundred thousand pounds. (Cunningham's Lives of British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, vol. iii.)