" NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES*" should have been called Nor,

LEKENS AND HIS WIFE. But let not anybody be deterred from

LITERARY SPECTATOR.

the perusal of this delightful book by its title : it is not the remi- niscences of one who only remembers what any rational person would have forgot : it is a treasure of good things—of strokes of

humour, traits of character, anecdotes of genius, manners of life; in short, it is a feast for the intellectual man, a lounge for the idler. It is true that NOLLEKENS and his wife are the principal figures of the piece, but what figures they are I—every scene is a comedy, every anecdote a light thrown upon human nature. Eternal ho- nour be to Mr. SMITH for modelling the life and character of a man in pages more durable than his own marble. Ah! the old miser is chiselled here in a way he never dreamed of : little did he think of the accurate cast that was about to be taken of his sni- velling features as soon as they had become cold. Far better would it have been, " little NOLLY!" had you made the expectant your residuary legatee, instead of balking his hope, breaking your promises, and cutting him off, with all the trouble of an exe- cutor, and a shabby hundred pounds. But lie has taken a handsome fortune out of your memory, and immortalized you into the bar- gain. Editions will be published of your history when the statues you pieced out of twenty bits to save stone have crumbled into their original morsels !

JOSEPH NOLLEKENS was born in London, of Flemish parents, in the year 17:37: he died in '1823, having lived nearly to the age of ninety. He was a sculptor of genius—in all other matters a species of idiot. He was a miser ; and the sympathy and encou- ragement of his wife increased his miserly habits, until it became a passion. He had for a long time employment in his art of the most lucrative description ; and as he never spent anything, he of course died immensely rich,—cheating, as it would seem misers love to do, all those whom he had encouraged to hope they would come in for a share of his wealth ; and in several instances acting with a shameful injustice to many whom he had actually paid by promises of reward after his death.

NOLLEKENS was undoubtedly a man of genius in his art. His bfists are in many instances scarcely short of perfection ; and his talent in sculpture, without any apparent feeling for beauty or sen-

timent of any description—without any information of any kind, for he was perhaps as ignorant a man as ever lived (he could not spell and scarcely could read)—and without the least power of looking in any way beyond the clay he was modelling, and from which he _only differed in animation—must become a subject of speculation to all those who take interest in inquiries respecting the nature of the human faculties.

NOLLEKENS would be a curious study, if his singularities stopped here ; but there would be nothing amusing in it. With his genius, and with his pursuits and in the society naturally arising from them, he mingled the most unconscious and extraor- dinary eccentricity ; his miserly habits and his great simplicity often presenting contrasts which have all the effect of the most brilliant wit,—for it is as impossible to help laughing, and that cordially, over the pages of Mr. SMITH, as it would be in perusing SMOLLETT or HOGARTH for the first time. His wife, too, is an admirable pendant. She was quite as avaricious itS NOLLEKENS: but he was simple and ignorant—she was pompous, pretending, and proud of her accomplishments (she had nearly been the wife of Dr. JouNsox) ; he was scarcely aware of his miserly propen sities—she attempted to conceal them, by, it is true, but a very slender covering ; he was mean—but she was cruel and hat d-hearted. When a publican scrupled to exchange good ale for sonic of her

old bottles of all shapes, she insisted upon being favoured because Mr. NOLLEKENS had not punished him for pasting two 'bills on

their backyard-gate when he advertised for his lost child, a fine youth who was accidentally drowned! She would extort four apples for a penny from a poor wretched old woman, because she permitted her to raise her stall within her palisades. Old NOLLEKENS was sometimes tempted to give half-a-crown to the loose women who stood as his models, especially when they danced before him: he had even an idea of charity—he would ask his man if he had done anything in that way ? "Lord, Sir, no !" the man would say. "Then go and give the twopence you had in change for the beer to that old man in the brown coat."—" Lord, Sir !

that's Mr. JENNINGS !" Mrs. NOLLEKENS once, when she saw her servant give her mite to a couple of half-starved wretches in a

severe frost, cried out, " Betty, bring that bone here, with little or no meat on, for these poor men."—" Bill," said one pallid creature to the other, "we are to have a bone with little or no meat on!" When this angel died, at an advanced age, (she was the Pekuah of JOHNSON'S Rasselas) old NOLLEKENS seemed to expand somewhat in generosity; so that there is

reason to think she narrowed even his niggardly spirit. When very imbecile, on such nights as he could not sleep, he would sit up in bed, and say to his housekeeper, "I cannot rest, I cannut sleep ; " and then, drivelling, ask, " Is there anybody that I know that wants a little money to do 'em good ? "

would also latterly make handsome presents to his servants on his birth-days. At the same time, and all his life long, he would accept from them the most trilling present. his masons would,

* Nollekens and his Times; comprehending a Life of that celebrated sculptor, and lliemoirs of Contemporary Artists, a U111 Inc time of floarth, and 1.{...:peut:is, to that of Fosell, Flaxman, and Blake. By J. T. Smith, Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 2 Vols. svo, with a Lille Portrait, after Jackson, London, 162d. Colbert'. but he treated the King like anybody else : his familiarity, it is When NOLLEKENS died, he had but two shoes, and they were true, showed excessive ignorance, but it at the same time showed odd ones, the survivors of the last two pairs : soap had not been that almost childish simplicity which in truth saves the man from used for forty years in the house. His maid Black Bet lived with utter contempt. When the Duke of CUMBERLAND asked him one him and his wife for forty years, and he left her nineteen guineas; day how a man of his years could wear such a high toupee, " What his residuary legatees must have had hundreds of thousands. for should you wear," said the simple sculptor, " such a big pair When Mrs. NOLLEKENS died, eleven hundred guineas were found of mustaquies ?" " Aye, you have it now, CUMBERLAND !" said concealed in a small room kept locked up, but which she used the Duke of YORK, who was present. One day when the late constantly to visit to count her treasure. She was a sad object King sent for him, NOLLEKENS did not go : " I thought you for some time before she died : her spine grew very bent, and would not have me," said he to the King : " it was a saint's day." at last was horridly twisted. Her husband would take drawings " What then did you do ? " " I went to the Tower to see the lions of its progressive bending, and Say, in comparing his sketches, fed. How one of them did roar ! my heart, how he did roar !— " Dear me ! how much more crooked you are this week than last !" just in this way ; "—and then he imitated the roaring of a lion so When anybody asked after her health, he would say, " Oh dear! loudly as to drive the King to the furthest part of the room. she is very bad: see how her spine is twisted there's a mould of " How's your father ? " NOLLEKENS would say to a Royal Duke ; it in that corner." who would good-humouredly tell him how the King happened Mr. SMITH, the author of this book, is the Keeper of the Prints to be. in the British Museum. He was a pupil of NOLLEKENS for three Avarice took a very early possession of him, and seems all his years, was ever after on very friendly terms with him, and doubtless life to have kept pace with the love of his profession. He was ap- expected to be well remembered in his will. He was disappointed ; prenticed to SCHEEMAKERS, an eminent sculptor in Vine-street. Mr. SMITH was only an executor. We might say, in the spirit of His first pleasure was ringing bells : he would toll for the sexton old NOLLEKENS, we are glad of it, or else we should never have while sent for a pot of beer. At the house where he got his porter, had this book, nor laughed so heartily for several successive morn- he somehow detected a Poussin, which had hung in the parlour ings. time immemorial : the wretched dirty little mason's boy plotted We must add, by way of postscript, that we find an abundant how to gain possession of the thing he coveted : now the publi- supply of information and amusing anecdote on subjects uncon- can had sailed with Admiral VsausoN "little Joe" knew a fellow neeted with NOLLEKENS: there are curious sketches of many who had a picture of the siege of Porto Bello, which he was willing other artists, and a great deal of curious matter connected with to sell for a shilling : his cunning suggested that the landlord would the history of art. We repeat, it is lucky for us that NATHANIEL gladly exchange a nameless Poussin for the scene of his exploits ; the Smelt was scratched,—for by this phrase old NOLLEKENS used exchange was made, and NOLLEKENS carried off his prize. He to threaten to revoke, his legacies ; meaning that he would afterwards made a perfect collection of PoussiN's drawings. When scratch them out of his will. " No, I would not pick it up," said at Rome, NOLLEKENS lived as cheap and as nastily as anybody. Dodemy his servant to his master, Who desired him to pick up He dwelt opposite a pork-butcher, who, whenever he killed a pig, and carry home a sop from the street, which a boy had just jerked exposed a plate of cuttings at his door : NoeeeKENs's old woman, out of a porter-pot ; " I would not pick it up, if you scratched "who did for him," as he used to call it, was a Constant Purchaser me I "—and Dodemy was scratched ; the codicilleaving him thirty of this savoury dish, and the sculptor has often been heard to re- pounds a year was erased.

2y

oret goat (rat of his " Roman cuttings." While at Rome, he picked

• up a great deal of money by making and mending antiques—by NEW MUSIC. botching a head, or a foot, or a pair of arms, and thus setting a shapeless torso on its legs : these were sold to English amateurs 1. Three Marches from the Operas of the Zauberspruch and Well°, ar- of fortune, who at this present time possess and consider them as 2. Introduction and Variations for the Pianoforte on a favourite Air in undoubted specimens of antiquity. Lord GRANTHAM, at Newby, the Opera Le Paysan Millionaire, by CHARLES CZERNY. has one of these precious pieces of botching—a Minerva, The work 3. The favourite Military Air, "Non Piu Andrai," from the Opera of was generally carried on in partnership. Three or four moderns Figaro, composed by MOZART, arranged for the Harp and Flute as were required to make one antique. Mr. BERNA.RD, showing his VELLO, and respectfully inscribed to Mrs. Dawney, by JOHN ROBIN- collection of Roman acquisitions to Mr. NOLLEKENS, complained SON, Organist of the Catholic Chapel, York. that he did not attend to them. "I do attend, I tell you," said the 4. Herz's celebrated Quadrilles, Les Elegantes, as Duets for two per- sculptor, in his usual manner : "I knew the man at Rome that formers on one Pianoforte. made all them there kind of things ;"—Mr. CRONE, or Mr. JEN- 5. Divertimento on the admired airs Ecco la Bella Vezzosa and Ti Lascio KiNs, we forget which he mentioned. The latter, JENKINS, had a workshop, and several artisans at work, in a remote part of the arranged for the Pianoforte, and dedicated to Miss H. KIALLMARK, Colisseum, making antique medals and coins, which were greedily by THOMAS VALENTINE. bought up by the dillettanti as fast as they could be forged. Most 7. R. COCKS and Co.'s Classical Beauties for the Pianoforte ; consisting singular compound—with an eye ever on the watch for forms, of the most admired Andantes, Adagios, Rondos, Minuetts, &c. ex- NOLLEKENS seems to have had the taste without the medium of tracted from the choice Works Of HAYDN and MOZART.

his senses : his hand could trace while his mind was dormant : he I. These productions present no difficulties in the execution. never felt grief, and yet he could invent its symbols. Going, as he Mr. Pixis appears to have chosen them rather for their simple frequently did, to take casts from the faces of the recently dead, the character, than for the display of his own ingenuity in making great, the young, the beautiful, he never was betrayed into sympa- passages. The first in D and the second in E are from the Zauber- thy : he handled the corpse like stone. "Now I- must measure sprach, an opera unknown in this country ; the last in B b is his nose—give me my calipers; now let's have his neck," &e. ; from the Otello, and possesses some glittering variations. in the midst of which silly talk, he would ask a distracted relation 2. There is much novelty in the theme which M. CZERNY has to get him some warm water or a basin. He was, as is well selected for treatment ; and the variations upon it are constructed known, much employed on monuments : in the evening he would with a view to brilliancy of effect and points of contrast. The amuse himself in scratching designs on backs of letters, and keep objectionable parts of Mr. CZERNY'S writings, such as crowding them in reserve for customers : "I always catch 'em, you see, with many notes into one and embarrassing the time, do not appear in the tear in the eye." His love for art induced him to bring with this instance ; nor does he want melody. The piece is in the key him from Rome a considerable stock of models and casts : his love of G.

of gain inspired him with the idea of filling their interior with 3. The celebrated song "Non Pin Andrei" cannot appear in smuggled goods. With all his partiality for the antique, he never an unwelcome shape. Mr. ROBINSON has put the accompaniments referred to it or mentioned it excepting as a means of trade : he for the Harp and Flute to the Pianoforte Duet, arranged by Mr. was never guided by it; never took any ideas from it, and was as NOVELL°, at once to give facilities to ladies in their musical little indebted to it as to religion for the devices of his tombs. soirees, and to thicken the harmony. The extra parts are within when he was in his prime, bring him little cheesecakes ; which he Mr. NOLLEKENS was by birth and profession a Catholic ; but always ate, " asking some question about it, and was sure to ac- he never went to chapel when it rained, and turned off his con- company the answer with some remark." He chewed tobacco ; his fessor because he drank a whole bottle of wine at his table, minus sawyer and his polisher did the same, and NOLLEKENS was never one glass, while the sculptor had fallen asleep. He much preferred known to buy any. He depended for snuff upon some other work- the opera to the mass : he was a constant attendant at the King's men. He was ingenious in supplying the deficiencies of his fur- Theatre, when he could get a bone. Though he cared nothing niture, or other househould conveniences. His coal-skuttle was a for music, (except the London cries, which he used to sing at his lawyer's wig-box, which had been sent with a wig to model from, work,) he was truly fond of contemplating the dancing. Here again and which he had appropriated. It was patched and mended all was his passion for forms ; an unconscious but overpowering pas- over with bits of tin, which he used to pick up in a morning him- sion, which made him the sculptor of his time, idiot as he was ; self from the dust-heaps about the town ' • and this was in a room and which would almost make us believers in phrenology—at least which had been from time to time visited by all that is great and in the existence of some interior organization which adapts an in- fashionable in the country. But neither rank, nor fashion, nor dividual for finding pleasure in the exercise of a particular pursuit, beauty could divert the attention of the miser for one moment from and at the same time enables him to excel in it. NOLLEKENS had the grand business of saving: one day, when modelling the beau- no love of nature—he was never known to seek it or to admire it ; tiful bosom of Lady CHALLemoNr, he left his work to call out to he never read, and did not know what poetry was ; he had no in- his man not to feed the yard bitch that day, for Mr. TOWNLEY formation to draw subjects from ' • and yet, when he wanted forms, had given her in the morning a part of a French roll—which that forms came. His masons would pile his clay in a certain rude gentleman used good-naturedly to do. heap, and then the ignorant but inspired booby would begin upon The simplicity of NOLLEKENS is redeeming. He was utterly it with his thumbs : presently form, beauty, grace and feeling, destitute of servility, at the same time that he was extremely loyal would expand under his hands ; all the time, the sculptor prattling and partial to the powers that exist. He detested Peter Pinder, silliness or drivelling nastiness. but he treated the King like anybody else : his familiarity, it is When NOLLEKENS died, he had but two shoes, and they were true, showed excessive ignorance, but it at the same time showed odd ones, the survivors of the last two pairs : soap had not been that almost childish simplicity which in truth saves the man from used for forty years in the house. His maid Black Bet lived with utter contempt. When the Duke of CUMBERLAND asked him one him and his wife for forty years, and he left her nineteen guineas; day how a man of his years could wear such a high toupee, " What his residuary legatees must have had hundreds of thousands. for should you wear," said the simple sculptor, " such a big pair When Mrs. NOLLEKENS died, eleven hundred guineas were found of mustaquies ?" " Aye, you have it now, CUMBERLAND !" said concealed in a small room kept locked up, but which she used the Duke of YORK, who was present. One day when the late constantly to visit to count her treasure. She was a sad object King sent for him, NOLLEKENS did not go : " I thought you for some time before she died : her spine grew very bent, and would not have me," said he to the King : " it was a saint's day." at last was horridly twisted. Her husband would take drawings " What then did you do ? " " I went to the Tower to see the lions of its progressive bending, and Say, in comparing his sketches, fed. How one of them did roar ! my heart, how he did roar !— " Dear me ! how much more crooked you are this week than last !" just in this way ; "—and then he imitated the roaring of a lion so When anybody asked after her health, he would say, " Oh dear! loudly as to drive the King to the furthest part of the room. she is very bad: see how her spine is twisted there's a mould of " How's your father ? " NOLLEKENS would say to a Royal Duke ; it in that corner."