WELLS, Josiah Robert

1849 - 1897

Josiah Robert Wells he was born at High Street, Needham Market, Suffolk in 1849, eldest child of Robert Wells and his wife Susanna[h] 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, all born at Needham Market. Ten years later, Josiah was a 23-year-old artist, still 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 (1838-1916) 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 died at Windsor, Berkshire in 1897.

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