A c. 1810 self-portrait by Wood, in watercolor on ivory, currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Joseph Wood (c. 1778 - June 15, 1830) was an American painter noted mainly for his portraits.

Wood was born near Clarkstown, New York, and in 1793 apprenticed to a silversmith. In 1801 he became a miniature painter and studied with Edward Greene Malbone. He then formed a partnership with John Wesley Jarvis, 1802-10, worked in Philadelphia from 1813–1816, then in Washington, D.C., from 1816–1830. In his later years he ran an art school and served as a draftsman for patent applications. He died in Washington, D.C.

References

• The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800–1915, by Andrew J. Cosentino and Henry H. Glassie, Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1983.
• Smithsonian American Art Museum entry