Towneley from A to Z
Towneley from A to Z
Joseph Nollekens was born in London and trained there as a sculptor before going to Rome in 1762. Charles Townley (1737-1805) first met Nollekens in Rome in 1767 and regularly visited his studio after Nollekens returned to London in 1770. A biography of Nollekens by John Thomas Smith "Nollekens and his Times" includes details of Nollekens working on the "Towneley Marbles" and his vists to Townley's dinners in Park Street, Westminster. The book can be downloaded from Internet Archive . See entry in A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851.
The sculpture collection has three works by Nollekens, all purchased by the Towneley family after Charles Townley's death in 1805
All three were in the Red Drawing Room in 1844.