Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkins, Joseph John
JENKINS, JOSEPH JOHN (1811–1885), engraver and water-colour painter, born in London in 1811, was son of an engraver, who brought him up to the same profession. He engraved many portraits, and among other works, ‘Susanna and the Elders,’ after Francesco Mola, and ‘The Greenwich Pensioner’ and ‘The Chelsea Pensioner,’ after M. W. Sharp. He engraved plates and drew illustrations for the annuals, such as ‘The Keepsake,’ ‘Heath's Book of Beauty,’ &c. Plates from his drawings will also be found in Heath's ‘Illustrations to Byron’ and similar works. Finding his health unsuited to the practice of engraving, he abandoned it for water-colour painting. He soon became known as a painter of domestic subjects or single figures. In 1842 he was elected an associate of the New Water-colour Society, and a member in 1843. He exhibited fifty-seven drawings at their exhibitions in Pall Mall. In 1847 he seceded from that society, and joined the Old Society, being elected an associate in 1849, and a full member in 1850. The remainder of his life was devoted to the service of that society, and to collecting materials for a history of it and its members. He was secretary for ten years, from 13 Feb. 1854, and was a constant contributor to its exhibitions, sending 271 drawings in all. Some of his drawings were engraved. In 1884 he resigned his membership of the society, and died unmarried on 9 March 1885, at 67 Hamilton Terrace, St. John's Wood. The history of the Old Society of Painters in Water-colours, for which Jenkins had collected so many materials, was completed by Mr. John L. Roget in 1891. Special private views of exhibitions for members of the press were first introduced by Jenkins.
[Roget's Hist. of the Old Water-colour Soc.; Athenæum, 21 March 1885.]