Joy was born on 9 July 1812 in Boughton Hall in Boughton Monchelsea where his father was the squire. The McManus Galleries in Dundee today exhibit Joy"s substantial commissions to paint Grace Darling and her father William, who had become Victorian heroes after rescuing sailors from the distressed Forfarshire paddle steamer.
By 1831 he was exhibiting at the Royal Academy. Joy also painted a re-creation of the wreck for his patron Lord Panmure and this is also in the same galleries in Dundee. Panmure was generous with this good-looking artist, encouraging him to visit the continent and paying for John Phillip to become his student briefly in 1836.
Joy married Eliza Rohde Spratt in 1839 and two years later received a Royal Commission that recognised him as an established artist.
The newly married couple lived at Number. 8 Fitzroy Street in the London parish of Street Pancras.
He painted the Queen"s dogs as well as the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Royal. These paintings are in the Royal Collection.
A large group painting exhibited in 1864 records the most important people at Tattersalls before a race.
Joy"s habits of overwork are said to have led to a bout of bronchitis that resulted in his death in 1866. In the same year his eighteen-year-old eldest daughter, Mary Eliza, exhibited her first painting at the Royal Academy. Joy died in Pimlico at 32 Street Georges Square.
Joy had exhibited regularly throughout his career at the Society of British Artists and at the British Institution.
Besides the paintings in Dundee he also has a number in public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum.
