Explore: Joseph Lionel Williams

(c1815 - 1877)

Watercolourist and engraver Joseph Lionel Williams was born in London; the son of wood-engraver Samuel Williams (1788-1853). He had three siblings, who also worked as wood-engravers, and the Williams brothers often collaborated with their father and with one another. Joseph helped his father with the plates for the Rev. Thomas Scott’s Bible (published 1833-34) and ‘Solace of Song’ (1836). Both Joseph and Emma Williams assisted Samuel with S. C. Hall’s ‘Book of British Ballads’ (1842), and Joseph and his brother Alfred produced illustrations independently for the ‘Illustrated London News’. Joseph exhibited 37 works at the Society of British Artists in London between 1834 and 1874. He died in Kensington in 1877.