Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/213

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college registers give no authority for the statement. He was cousin to George Francis Joseph [q. v.] He was a pupil of Peter Rouw [q. v.], and a student of the Royal Academy, where in 1815 he obtained a gold medal for a group of ‘Eve supplicating Forgiveness.’ He soon obtained practice in London as a sculptor of busts and medallion portraits, and was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, commencing in 1811, when he sent two busts, one being of the son of his master, Rouw. In 1823 he removed to Edinburgh, where he settled for five years, and obtained plenty of practice. Here his work was much esteemed, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy. At the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh there are busts by him of Lord Brougham, Sir David Wilkie, the Rev. Archibald Alison, and Henry Mackenzie. In 1826 he returned to London, but did not subsequently meet with the success which he contemplated. There was good style and workmanship in his busts. In 1830 he executed by command a bust of George IV. Joseph is best known by his statue of Sir David Wilkie in the National Gallery, presented by a committee of gentlemen in 1844, and by his well-known statue of William Wilberforce in Westminster Abbey, a very popular work, which has, however, excited some adverse criticism. Joseph exhibited at the Royal Academy for the last time in 1846. He died in London in 1850.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Men of the Reign; Catalogues of the Royal Academy and the National Gallery of Scotland.]

L. C.

JOSI, CHRISTIAN (d. 1828), engraver and print-dealer, was a native of Utrecht, where he was educated in the Rhede Renwoude Institute. Showing a taste for fine arts rather than for mathematics, he was sent to London as a pensioner of the institute. Here he remained five years, studying engraving under John Raphael Smith, and also, it is said, under Bartolozzi and C. M. Metz. Josi returned to Holland after marrying the daughter of Jan Chalon, a Dutch painter then resident in London, and settled in Amsterdam, where he practised as an engraver, and also set up as a dealer in prints and paintings by the old masters. On the death of his relation, Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, in 1800, he inherited that amateur's collections, including a number of facsimiles in colour of drawings by the great artists of the Netherlands, which van Amstel had got together for a book on the subject of Dutch Art. In 1810 he completed a catalogue of the Ploos van Amstel collection of etchings by Rembrandt, which were sold by auction in Amsterdam on 31 July 1810. The catalogue, which is of great value, contained a portrait of Rembrandt, etched by Josi himself. The occupation of Holland by the French (1810–1814) brought all Josi's artistic works and business to a standstill. On the evacuation of Holland by the French Josi broke up his establishment in Amsterdam, and in 1815 was one of the committee selected to go to Paris to recover the works of art taken thither from Holland by Napoleon. In 1819 he finally settled in England, bringing his family and large private collections with him. He settled in Gerrard Street, Soho, in the house formerly occupied by Dryden, and continued to practise as engraver and print-dealer. In 1821 he completed, with a long introduction, Ploos van Amstel's work, ‘Collection d'imitations de dessins d'après les principaux maîtres hollandais et flamands,’ which he dedicated to the king of the Netherlands. Josi died at Ramsgate in November 1828. His collections were sold by auction in March 1829, the sale occupying twelve days. His own engravings are of no particular merit, but as a connoisseur he had great repute.

Josi, Henry (1802–1845), keeper of the prints and drawings in the British Museum, son of the above, was born at Amsterdam in 1802. In 1815 he accompanied his father to Paris, and removing with him to London in 1819, was sent to Dr. Burney's school at Greenwich. Subsequently he assisted his father for some time in his profession, but eventually set up a business of his own as print-seller in Newman Street. On the death in 1833 of John Thomas Smith [q. v.], keeper of the prints and drawings in the British Museum, Josi was a candidate for the post, which was given to William Young Ottley [q. v.] On Ottley's death in 1836 Josi was elected to the office, which he filled till his death on 7 Feb. 1845. During his tenure of office several important additions to the collection were made, including the Sheepshanks collection of Dutch and Flemish etchings, the collection of engravings by Raphael Morghen, and the Coningham collection of early German engravings. Under him the department was transferred to a new room at the end of the Elgin room, where it remained until 1886.

[Josi's Preface to Ploos van Amstel's work mentioned above; Immerzeel's Levens en Werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche Kunstenaars; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; Gent. Mag. xlviii. (1828) 572, new ser. xxiii. (1845) 320; Art Journal, 1845, p. 69.]

L. C.

JOSSE, AUGUSTIN LOUIS (1763–1841), catholic priest and grammarian, was born in France in 1763. During the reign