Quick Facts
Biography
Joseph Francis Nollekens (Dutch: Josef Frans Nollekens) (1702–1748) was a Flemish painter, baptised as Corneille François Nollekens and often called "Old Nollekens" in English.
Life
He was born in Antwerp, the son of Jan Baptiste Nollekens, a painter who practised for a time in England, but eventually settled in France. He perhaps studied under Antoine Watteau, whose style and choice of subject he to some extent imitated; and did study for a time under Giovanni Paolo Panini.
Nollekens went to England in 1733. On 21 January 1748, he died at his house in Dean Street, Soho, and was buried at Paddington. According to a contemporary story of Thomas Banks, he was a miser, or had a pathological fear of being robbed of property.
Works
When first in England, Nollekens worked on making copies from Watteau and Panini. He also carried out decorative works at Stowe House for Lord Cobham, and painted pictures for the Marquess of Stafford at Trentham Hall.
Nollekens found a major patron in Richard Child, 1st Earl Tylney, for whom he painted conversation pieces, fêtes champêtres, and similar works, usually set in the gardens of Wanstead House. Several of these were included in the sale held at Wanstead in 1822, one, an Interior of the Saloon at Wanstead, with an assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, fetching a high price for the time. At Windsor there was a picture by him in which portraits of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his sisters were introduced.
Family
Nollekens married Mary Anne Le Sacq or Lesack, by whom he had five children: John Joseph, Joseph, Maria Joanna Sophia, Jacobus, and Thomas Charles. Of them, only Joseph Nollekens remained in England becoming one of the nation's most famous sculptors.