Joseph Whiting Stock

Who was Joseph Whiting Stock?

Joseph Whiting Stock was an American painter known for his portraits, miniatures, and landscape paintings, many of which he did on commission. He was born on January 30, 1815 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

When Joseph Whiting Stock was eleven years old, an oxcart fell on him and he was paraplegic for the rest of his life. After this accident, Whiting Stock began to study painting under the teacher Franklin White, a pupil of the painter Chester Harding, on the advice of his physician and was commissioned to do a series of anatomical drawings by Dr. James Swan in 1834. That year, Dr. James Swan constructed a wheelchair which enabled Whiting Stock to paint large canvasses and be lifted on trains so as to travel for commissions. For the next two decades Whiting Stock accepted commissions for portraits around New England, working in Warren and Bristol RI, New Bedford, MA, and Middletown, Goshen, and Port Jervis, NY. His studios were located in Springfield, MA throughout this time.

In 1855, Stock died of tuberculosis in Springfield. He was forty years old.