Joseph Lee

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Lee, Joseph (1780–1859), enamel painter, was born on 16 January 1780, the son of John Lee of Islington, London, and his wife, Rachel, née Oldroyd. After an unsuccessful start in business, Lee turned to painting, in which he was probably self-taught, at about the age of thirty, when he studied the work of C. F. Zincke. He painted miniatures in enamel from the life, and also copied pictures in enamel, especially after works by B. van der Helst, George Romney, Jean Petitot, and Charles Boit. He was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1809 to 1853, and also exhibited with the Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street. With his wife, Ann (d. 1827), Lee had seven children, of whom Edwin Edmunds Lee and Walter Joseph Stooke Lee later became painters. In 1818 he was appointed enamel painter to Princess Charlotte of Wales, of whom he exhibited portraits in that year and in 1823 (the latter a copy of one by Dawe), and in 1832 a portrait of the duke of Sussex, after Phillips, having previously been appointed enamel painter to that prince. He also painted George IV after Sir Thomas Lawrence. Lee exhibited for the last time in 1853, and died at his home, 13 Victoria Place, Gravesend, Kent, on 26 December 1859, aged seventy-nine. Lee was apparently unsuccessful financially and in later years received an allowance from his nephew, Charles Lee, an architect. Daphne Foskett records that ‘Lee, whose height was 5 ft. 8 in., used to carry an enamel of Napoleon I in his pocket as a show piece’ (Foskett, 586). Enamel paintings by Lee are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Wallace Collection, London. Another, of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, signed in full on the reverse, is in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

L. H. Cust, rev. Annette Peach Sources D. Foskett, Miniatures: dictionary and guide (1987) · CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1860) Wealth at death under £200: administration with will, 10 March 1860, CGPLA Eng. & Wales