Artist

Joseph Wood

born Clarkstown, NY 1778-died Washington, DC 1830

Born: Clarkstown, New York, United States
Died: Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Biography: Born about 1778 near Clarkstown, N.Y. In New York, about 1793–1813. Apprenticed to a silversmith, 1793. Became a miniature painter, 1801. Studied with Edward G. Malbone. Formed a partnership with John Wesley Jarvis, 1802–10. In Philadelphia, 1813–16. Lived in Washington, D.C., 1816–30. Did drawings of models for the Patent Office. Ran an art school. Painted portraits of many distinguished people. Died June 15, 1830, in Washington, D.C.
Andrew J. Cosentino and Henry H. Glassie The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800–1915 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1983)
: Luce Artist Biography
Joseph Wood knew he did not want to become a farmer like his father, and left home at the age of fifteen to pursue a career as an artist in New York. Walking along the streets of the city, Wood was drawn to the miniature paintings he saw in the window of a silversmith’s shop and quickly asked to become an apprentice. Wood’s first works were copies from portraits he found in the shop, and his career was shaped by his instruction from Edward Greene Malbone, and his partnership with John Wesley Jarvis. After parting ways with Jarvis, Wood moved to Philadelphia, where he created his strongest works. By 1816, however, his career had begun to decline---perhaps as a result of a drinking habit he picked up from his partner---and by 1829 he was forced to advertise himself as a “draftsman for patent applications.”

Works by this artist (1 item)

Chris Burden, Documentation of Selected Works 1971-74, 1971-1975, single-channel video, color and black and white, sound; 34:38 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company, 2007.33.11, © 1975 Chris Burden. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY

Documentation of Selected Works 1971 – 74

Artist

Date1971-1975

single-channel video, color and black and white, sound; 34:38 minutes