Joseph W. Carey

Who was Joseph W. Carey?

Joseph William Carey was an Irish artist.

Joseph was the son of the Rev. J. W. Carey, a Moravian Minister at Kilwarlin Moravian Church, Kilwarlin, County Down, Ireland. He trained as an illustrator with Marcus Ward & Co., publishers. When this firm failed in 1899, he set up a business with his brother John Carey and Ernest Hanford at 142 Royal Avenue in Belfast, in latter-day Northern Ireland, where they were joined later by Richard Thomson. Their firm specialised in high quality illuminated addresses, presentation albums, and book plates.

Carey's most important commission as an artist was for 13 scenes from Belfast history on canvas for the Ulster Hall in 1903. Between 1915–35, 26 of his paintings were exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. He was a founding member of Belfast Ramblers Sketching Club and Belfast Art Society, and later he became an academician of the Ulster Academy of Arts. His other interests included ballooning and chess.

Percy French and Hugh Thomson were both lifelong friends and frequent visitors to Carey's house at Knock. Examples of his work are in the Ulster Museum, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Armagh County Museum, Linen Hall Library, and Harbour Commissioners Office.