by William Roberts

“ Joseph left Meppel in 1866 and settled at Hull, starting as a general dealer on a site now partly covered by the Public Art Gallery built in 1910. He possessed a good knowledge of Nankin procelain, then coming into fashion, and of which cargo loads had been brought to Holland by the early Dutch traders with China; he purchased large quantities of this in various parts of his native country, shipped it to Hull, and found a ready market for it in London. ”

“ DUVEEN, Sir JOSEPH JOEL (1843–1908) , art dealer and benefactor, born at Meppel in Holland on 8 May 1843, was elder son in a family of two sons and two daughters of Joseph Duveen of that place by his wife Eva, daughter of Henry van Minden of Zwolle. His grandfather, Henry Duveen, who had first settled at Meppel during the Napoleonic wars, was youngest son of Joseph Duveen of Giessen, army contractor to the King of Saxony ; Napoleon's repudiation of the debts of the Saxon forces ruined this Duveen, whose twelve sons were then driven to seek their fortunes in different countries. ”

“ In 1869 he married Rosetta, daughter of Abraham Barnett of Carr Lane, Hull, who survived him, and by whom he had a family of ten sons and four daughters.
His portrait by Emil Fuchs, M.V.O., is in the Turner wing of the gallery at Millbank. His eldest son, Joseph, who made additions to his father's benefaction to the Tate Gallery, presented to the new Public Art Gallery of Hull, as a memorial of his father's association with the town of Hull, 'The Good Samaritan,' by Edward Stott, A.R. A.
[Private information from the family and Mr. A. C. R. Carter ; The Year's Art, 1908, (with portrait) .] ”