Background
Joseph Wood was born in 1778, in Clarkstown, New York, United States. He was a son of a respectable farmer, who was also sheriff of Orange County, New York.
Joseph Wood was born in 1778, in Clarkstown, New York, United States. He was a son of a respectable farmer, who was also sheriff of Orange County, New York.
In his early years in New York City, Wood was an apprentice to a silversmith. He also received instruction in the art of the miniature from Edward Greene Malbone.
Wishing his son to follow his own calling, Wood's father frowned upon his artistic tendencies. Finally, at the age of fifteen, Joseph ran away to New York City, hoping to become a landscape painter and to find a position, that would help him improve his drawing. Wood was bitterly disappointed in both objectives and spent several friendless years, variously working and playing the violin for a livelihood.
One day, Joseph saw some miniatures in a silversmith's window on Broadway and, persuading the proprietor to accept him as an apprentice, was finally allowed to examine and copy one of the miniatures. For several years, he worked as a silversmith, but about 1804, having made the acquaintance of another young artist, John Wesley Jarvis, Wood went into partnership with him.
Joseph and John started a flourishing business in eglomisé silhouettes, sometimes taking in as much as a hundred dollars a day. William Dunlap, who visited the two young men, described them as artists, who "indulged in the excitements and experienced the perplexities of mysterious marriages; and it is probable, that these perplexities kept both poor and confined them to the society of young men, instead of that respectable communion with ladies and the refined circles of the city, which Edward Greene Malbone enjoyed". These "mysteries and perplexities" are also cited as possible causes of the none-too-friendly dissolution of the Wood-Jarvis partnership about 1809.
It's worth mentioning, that it was through Jarvis, that Wood met Edward Greene Malbone, one of the foremost American miniaturists of the day, and received instruction from him in the art of the miniature from the preparation of the ivory to the finishing of the picture. Malbone also rendered Wood considerable assistance and was his friend as long as he lived.
Wood maintained a studio in New York City until 1812 or 1813, having set up for himself after the break with Jarvis, but then moved to Philadelphia and exhibited regularly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts until 1817.
By 1827, Joseph had settled down in Washington, and it is possible, that he painted also in Baltimore. He was a prolific worker, turning out innumerable portraits and miniatures, as well as pencil sketches and silhouettes. Among his oils are a cabinet-size painting of Andrew Jackson and a portrait of Henry Clay. A miniature of Jackson by Wood was engraved in 1824 by James B. Longacre, while his portrait of Clay was lithographed in 1825 by Albert Newsam. He also painted a miniature of John Greene Proud. Besides, one of his works, a watercolor portrait of an unknown man, had an inscription on the reverse, that read "presented to Edith McPherson by Mrs. Abby Wood, 1839". It's unknown, whether Mrs. Wood, thus mentioned, was his widow or not.
In his later years, whether through dissipation or other adversity, Wood slipped into a state of poverty, in which he died in Washington in 1832. Nathaniel Rogers, who became his pupil in 1811 and was his paid helper for several years, is said to have befriended him and his children in their adversity.
Wood was married and had children.