WELLS, Josiah Robert

1849 - 1897

Josiah Robert Wells was born at High Street, Needham Market, Suffolk on 24 January 1849, eldest child of Robert Wells, a miller, and his wife Susannah Maria née Read, who married at Needham Market in 1848. In 1861, Josiah was a 12-year-old scholar, living at Needham Market with his parents, 39-year-old Robert and 42-year-old Susannah and his three siblings, Albert 10, Rosa 6 and Catherine 4, who were all born at Needham Market. Ten years later, Josiah was a 23-year-old artist, still living at Needham Market with his parents and sister Kathleen [sic] but by 1881, a 31-year-old artist, boarding at 15 Steele's Road, Haverstock Hill, Hampstead, London, the home of artist Charles Joseph Staniland (19 June 1838-16 June 1916) and his family and where Josiah's 27-year-old sister Rosa was the governess to Staniland's children. Wells was the principal marine artist for 'The Illustrated London News' 1873-1883, specialising in marine subjects and ship portraits. A member and exhibitor at the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1884-1897, and exhibited from 15 Steele's Road, Hampstead in 1883, five works 'Condemned', 'Kynance Cove, Cornwall', 'Laid Ashore for the Tide' and two watercolours 'Rye Harbour' and 'Bawdsey, Suffolk', in 1884 'On a Norfolk River' and in 1885 'The Port of Blakeney'. Josiah was also a member and exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and the New Society of Painters in Water Colours from 1872 and in 1879 exhibited 'The Cleopatra and The Anglia in the Bay of Biscay' he also exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was still living with the Stanilands' in 1891. Josiah Robert Wells, was an artist of Belleville Heathcote Grove, Chingford, when he died of 'general paralysis' at Holloway Sanitorium, Virginia Water on 27 June 1897, when his age was given as 46 [sic].

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 1 Fitzroy Street, West London
1877 657 A Steam Carrier, collecting fish from the Dogger Bank Trawl Fleet
from 15 Steele's Road, Haverstock Hill, London
1880 646 Harwich, from Shotley Point
1881 564 Kynance Cove, Cornwall, January 1881
1882 976 A Salt Marsh

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Works by This Artist