Joseph Joel Duveen

He was born in Meppel in the Netherlands on 8 May 1843, the son of Eva (van Minden) and Joseph Henoch Duveen, who were both from Dutch Jewish families.

He possessed a good knowledge of Nanking porcelain, then coming into fashion; cargo loads of this had been brought to Holland by the early Dutch traders with China.

[2] In partnership with his younger brother Henry he secured the chief American trade in Oriental porcelain, and in 1877 opened a branch house at Fifth Avenue, New York.

He was a subscriber to the public purchase of Velasquez's "Rokeby Venus" for the National Gallery in 1906, and in the same year he presented John Singer Sargent's portrait of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, which he bought at the Irving sale at Christie's in 1905 for £1200, to the Tate Gallery.

[2] Duveen died in Hyères, France, on 9 November 1908, and was buried at Willesden Jewish Cemetery.