Joseph Dwight Strong, Jr. (1853–1899) was an American

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

and illustrator, known for his paintings. He was active between 1870s until 1899, in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under both ...

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ''Ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina''), was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island ...

, and

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

Early life and education

Joseph Dwight Strong was born September 15, 1853 in Westport,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

to father Reverend Joseph Dwight Strong and mother Margaret Dewing Bixby Strong. He had six siblings, his sister was painter

Elizabeth Strong Elizabeth Strong (1855–1941) was an American artist, known for landscape, animal and figure paintings. She was nicknamed, "the Rosa Bonheur of America". Biography Elizabeth Strong was born on February 1, 1855, in Westport, Connecticut, to pa ...

. His childhood was spent in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

with his family for a few years before moving to

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

in 1859. He was an early

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

, taking many photos of

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. He enrolled at the California School of Design (now known as San Francisco Art Institute) with his sister Elizabeth. At California School of Design he studied with

Virgil Macey Williams Virgil Macey Williams (October 29, 1830 - December 18, 1886) was an American painter, and the director of the San Francisco School of Design (now known as San Francisco Art Institute). In 1872, he co-founded the San Francisco Art Association wi ...

and Tobias Edward Rosenthal. The residents of Oakland and the Mayor, raised funds to send Strong to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

for four years of further study under Karl von Piloty and

Alexander Wagner Alexander (Aleksander) Wagner (7 August 1868 – 1942) was a Polish chess correspondence master and theoretician. He studied law in Lemberg (Lwów, Lviv), playing chess in the Lviv Chess Club. He took 4th at Lviv 1895 and 6th at Lviv 1896, both w ...

. Strong left for Munich, Germany in 1872.

Career

In 1878, Strong shared a house in

Monterey, California Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...

with his sister Elizabeth. While he was in Monterey, he courted his future wife Isobel Osbourne and made many portraits of her. Returning to San Francisco a few months later, the couple got an apartment at 7

Montgomery Street Montgomery Street is a north-south thoroughfare in San Francisco, California, in the United States. It runs about 16 blocks from the Telegraph Hill neighborhood south through downtown, terminating at Market Street Market Street may refer to: * ...

. He worked as an illustrator for Elliott and Co., working on the book the ''Illustrated History of Monterey County''. Strong and his wife Isobel traveled to the

in 1882, where they lived for several years. In 1886, King David Kalākaua appointed Strong governmental artist on the expedition to

headed by

John Edward Bush John Bush may refer to: Music *Johnny Bush (1935–2020), American country music singer *John Bush (singer) (born 1963), American metal vocalist for Armored Saint and Anthrax Public life * John Bush (English politician), MP for Cambridge 1411 and ...

aboard the ''Kaimiloa''. In Hawaii, Strong had a severe sunburn and suffered from a mental illness and alcoholism, which eventually forced him into a sanitarium and placed strain on his marriage. In June 1889, Strong contacted his (step)father-in-law Robert Louis Stevenson to ask for help with his debts. As a result, Stevenson and his family (wife Fanny and Isobel's brother,

Lloyd Osbourne Samuel Lloyd Osbourne (April 7, 1868 – May 22, 1947) was an American author and the stepson of the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, with whom he co-authored three books, including '' The Wrecker'', and provided input and ideas on oth ...

) sailed to Hawaii to release Strong. Strong was invited to go island hopping in the South Pacific with the Stevenson family, leaving Isobel and their son in Hawaii. Once the Strong and Stevensons were settled in

Vailima, Samoa Vailima is the name of a village about four miles south of Apia, the capital of Samoa. The population is 769. Vailima is part of the electoral political district Tuamasaga. Origins The name Vailima means "water in the hand", according to an old ...

, Strong had an affair with a Samoan woman. By the end of this travel, Strong was no longer married. In the mid-1890, Strong returned to San Francisco and focused on portrait painting. He died on April 5, 1899. His work is included in many public museum collections including at the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...

, the

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cali ...

, the

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the ...

, among others. In 2018, the Johann Jacobs Museum in Zurich, in cooperation with Prof. Martin Dusinberre, dedicated a whole exhibition to the painting, ''Japanese Laborers on Spreckelsville Plantation'' (1855).

Personal life

In 1879 he married

Isobel Osbourne Isobel "Belle" Osbourne Strong Field (September 18, 1858 – June 26, 1953) was an author and the daughter of Fanny Stevenson and sister of Lloyd Osbourne. Through her mother's second marriage, she was a stepdaughter of Robert Louis Stevenson. ...

, the daughter of

Fanny Vandegrift Frances "Fanny" Matilda Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson (10 March 1840 – 18 February 1914) was an American magazine writer. She became a supporter and later the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the mother of Isobel Osbourne, Samuel Lloyd O ...

and step-daughter of the writer

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

. Stevenson described Joseph in ''

The Silverado Squatters ''The Silverado Squatters'' (1883) is a Travel literature, travel memoir by Robert Louis Stevenson of his two-month honeymoon trip with Fanny Vandegrift (and her son Lloyd Osbourne) to Napa Valley, California, in 1880. Background In July 1879, ...

'' as a great omelet maker. Joseph Dwight Strong's child, Joseph Austin Strong was born in 1881 in San Francisco prior to relocation in Hawaii. Joseph Austin Strong became a playwright. A second son was born to the Strong family, but he died before his first birthday. After Strong's affair in Samoa, Isobel and Joseph divorced and his son Joseph Austin was legally adopted by Stevenson. Many of the diaries and letters which Stevenson and his family published after the divorce were edited to remove all reference to Joseph Strong, and several photographs were destroyed or altered. He married a second time to Elizabeth Haight in June 1898.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Strong, Joseph Dwight 1853 births 1899 deaths Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area 19th-century American painters American male painters Painters from Connecticut Hawaii artists Volcano School painters American landscape painters Painters from California People from Oakland, California San Francisco Art Institute alumni 19th-century American male artists