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Lot Essay
Joseph Nollekens' bust of Pitt was his most famous and popular creation. After Pitt's death in 1806 Nollekens was asked to take a death mask which he used as a model to make marble busts of the ex-Prime Minister. Within a year he boasted that he had orders for 52 examples of the bust. According to his biographer J. T. Smith, he eventually sold 74 replicas in marble and later 600 plaster casts. There are versions in marble in several museums worldwide, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (A.11-1925), the National Portrait Gallery (NPG 120) and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Nollekens also executed a full-size marble statue of Pitt, erected at Senate House, Cambridge, in 1812. Busts by Nollekens of Pitt and Fox were often displayed as pendants.
Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) was a generation older than Sir Francis Chantrey but dominated, with the latter, the market for sculpted marble portrait busts in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A gifted artist and an even more gifted businessman, he amassed a fortune of over £200,000 by the time of his death.
Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) was a generation older than Sir Francis Chantrey but dominated, with the latter, the market for sculpted marble portrait busts in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A gifted artist and an even more gifted businessman, he amassed a fortune of over £200,000 by the time of his death.