Born in Dorchester, 1847; trained with Messrs Agnew, Fine Art Publishers, c.1866-c.1875; purchased the London Art Business of Messrs Dickinson, New Bond Street, c.1875; Honorary Secretary of the Folk-lore Society, 1885-1892; became interested in the art of miniature painting and visited a large number of collections in Britain and abroad; Member of the British Committee International Exhibition of Miniatures, 1912; produced a large number of publications relating to the History of Art, and miniature paintings in particular; published Wessex Worthies , biographies of notable Wessex personages, 1920; continued his research for a dictionary of miniature painters, published posthumously by his daughter; died 1923. Publications: Catalogue of a Loan Collection of Miniatures and Enamels [Compiled by J J Foster]([London,] 1880); British Miniature Painters and their works (Sampson, Low & Co, London, 1898); The Stuarts, 2 vols (Dickinsons, London; E P Dutton & Co, New York, 1902); Miniature Painters, British and Foreign, with some account of those who practised in America in the eighteenth century, 2 vols (Dickinsons, London; E P Dutton & Co, New York, 1903); The Life of George Morland, with remarks on his works with an introduction and notes by J J Foster (Dickinsons, London, 1904) [Reprint of: The Life of George Morland by Vernor, Hood, & Sharpe (J Walker, London, 1807)]; Concerning the True Portraiture of Mary, Queen of Scots (Dickinsons, London, 1904); French Art from Watteau to Prud'hon Edited by J J Foster (Dickinsons, London, 1905-1907); Chats on Old Miniatures (T Fisher Unwin, London, 1908); Samuel Cooper and the English miniature painters of the XVII Century, with supplement: A List, alphabetically arranged, of works of English miniature painters of the XVII century, with a description of the same, names of the owners and remarks, 2 vols (Dickinsons, London, 1914-1916); Wessex Worthies - Dorset (Dickinsons, London, 1920); A Dictionary of Painters of Miniatures, 1525-1850 edited by Ethel M Foster (P Allan & Co, London, 1926).
From the guide to the FOSTER, Joshua James (1847-1923), 1880-1935, (Courtauld Institute of Art)
