As a wedding present, John Bowes bought her the former home of one of King Louis XV's mistresses, the Château du Barry, that became their residence.

[6] The Revue Critique wrote of her 1860s gatherings of artists, intellectuals, and French society that 'the salons of Madame Bowes are counted among the most brilliant in Paris'.

[6] She was celebrated for her taste in fashion and jewellery, and an 1872 bill from one of her visits to the foremost couturier of the day, Charles Worth, comes to the equivalent of £114,000 in modern (2020) currency.

She eventually became a skilled artist, with her work exhibited on four occasions in the late 1860s at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and once at the Royal Academy in London—an unusual achievement for a woman of the time.

Joséphine's vision was to create a place where the local coal miners and farmers could encounter fine art and improve their lives.

[3] Her purchases of paintings benefited from her friendships with young artists, and she also worked with two Parisian dealers, Mme Lepautre and A. Lamer, who left annotated records of their dealings, which are still held by the museum.

[3] She purchased works by artists as diverse as El Greco, Cannaletto, Boucher, Anne Vallayer-Coster, Courbet, and Charles Joshua Chaplin.

Bowes had dedicated herself to building up a collection worthy of the museum, buying art which even if not to her taste, she felt was necessary to show in such a location.

Joséphine officially laid the foundation stone of the museum on 27 November 1869, but she was apparently too ill to do so physically, and merely touched it with a trowel.