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Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E , Case A, Shelf 190

Design

1774 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This design made in about 1774 by Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) is for a sepulchral wall monument. It is on the back of a design for the monument to Oliver Goldsmith. Nollekens is best known as the leading portrait sculptor in Britain between 1770 and 1815. With his fellow Royal Academicians Thomas Banks and John Flaxman he established the British School of sculpture following decades of dependence on immigrant sculptors (such as Rysbrack, Scheemakers and Roubiliac). Flaxman praised Nollekens as the only sculptor before Banks who had "formed his taste on the antique and introduced a purer style of art". Opportunities to study the antique were plentiful whilst Nollekens lived for eight years from 1762-1770 in Rome. As a draughtsman he was exceptionally well trained for his day.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Chalk on laid paper
Brief description
Design for sculpture by Joseph Nollekens, 1774.
Physical description
Sketch of a wall monument depicting a plaque above a sarcophagus covered with trophies. The design for the monument to Oliver Goldsmith is on the recto.
Dimensions
  • Height: 19.9cm
  • Width: 16.3cm
Production typeDesign
Marks and inscriptions
  • '80.7.23' (In pencil at bottom of inside mount. Sackler no.)
  • ' 'The Property of Mrs. M. Hill / Joseph Nollekens / 271/ [title]. His portrait is contained in a roundel [...] on which there are masks of tragedy and comedy and a trumpet / A Study for another Monument on the verso.' (On printed label on inside of mount.)
  • 'Thursday 27 March 69. Sotherbies'
Object history
Historical significance: 'Nollekens is best known as the leading portrait sculptor in Britain between 1770 and 1815, and as the subject of the biography Nollekens and his Times (1828) by J.T. Smith. With his fellow Royal Academicians Thomas Banks and John Flaxman he established the British School of sculpture following decades of dependence on immigrant sculptors (such as Rysbrack, Scheemakers and Roubiliac). Flaxman praised Nollekens as the only sculptor before Banks who had "formed his taste on the antique and introduced a purer style of art". As a draughtsman he was exceptionally well trained for his day. He is also noted as a collector; he owned the three wax reliefs by Giambologna now in the V&A. The V&A's collection includes three busts by Nollekens, five of his terracottas, his marble copy after the antique, Castor and Pollux (1767)and his original marble of Diana (1778).'

Julius Bryant on RF 2010/245.
Historical context
In the ca. 2009 edition of Gunnis's Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, design is identified as 'Sackler priv. col.'
Subjects depicted
Summary
This design made in about 1774 by Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) is for a sepulchral wall monument. It is on the back of a design for the monument to Oliver Goldsmith. Nollekens is best known as the leading portrait sculptor in Britain between 1770 and 1815. With his fellow Royal Academicians Thomas Banks and John Flaxman he established the British School of sculpture following decades of dependence on immigrant sculptors (such as Rysbrack, Scheemakers and Roubiliac). Flaxman praised Nollekens as the only sculptor before Banks who had "formed his taste on the antique and introduced a purer style of art". Opportunities to study the antique were plentiful whilst Nollekens lived for eight years from 1762-1770 in Rome. As a draughtsman he was exceptionally well trained for his day.
Bibliographic reference
Roscoe, Ingrid, Hardy, Emma, Sullivan, M. G. A biographical dictionary of sculptors in England, 1660-1851. New Haven [Conn.]; London: Yale University Press, c.2009. pp.896-911.
Collection
Accession number
E.460:2-2010

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Record createdAugust 23, 2010
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