[6] Stannard belonged to the second generation, which also included John Berney Crome, Stark, Vincent and Miles Edmund Cotman.

[15][16] He was the elder son of Abraham Stannard, who was possibly a musician, and Mary Bell,[17] and was baptised by his parents on 17 September at St Michael-at-Plea, Norwich.

Crome was at time Norwich's most famous artist, and his fees proved to be too high for the Stannards, so they paid for their son to be apprenticed by Robert Ladbrooke in the city.

[15][20] Ladbrooke, who had already given him informal lessons, was able to teach the young artist to become a skilled draughtsman, with the potential to develop his own style.

Impressed by Stannard's ability, he even waived his tuition fees, offering an annual payment of £10 to entice him to work in his studio.

She had been influenced by a visit to Holland with her father, the artist Daniel Coppin, where there was the opportunity for her to study the techniques of the Dutch still life painters,[23] and copy works by Jan van Huysum.

[25] Emily Coppin Stannard was a notable painter of fruit and flowers, who received three gold medals from the Norwich Society of Arts and was still painting 50 years after her husband's death.

[26] Joseph Stannard was one of the most important members of the Norwich School of Artists even n though his career lasted only fifteen years and his output was affected by illness.

He was praised by the local press in 1817, when the Norfolk Chronicle noted that he was "a rising genius",[21] and there was a positive review of his work in The Norwich Mercury in August 1818.

[41] Between 1820 and 1829, Stannard exhibited works at the Royal Academy and the British Institution in London, showing eight works at the British Institution from 1824 to 1828 (Breydon, looking towards Yarmouth; Mundesley Cliffs, looking towards Cromer; A View near Norwich; Breydon—Morning; On the Norwich River; A Marine View; Gorleston Pier—Pilot Boats Going Off and Fresh Breeze, Lowestoft Roads).

[19][23] By 1823 he was suffering financially, a situation created by the patronage of the Norwich manufacturer and entrepreneur John Harvey, who commissioned Stannard to paint Thorpe Water Frolic, Afternoon.

Harvey, who perhaps had not realised the large cost of the work, declined to accept it, and Stannard was left unable to recover his expenses.

[48][47] Daniell sued him when a newly built studio obscured his light; Stannard was forced to remove it after losing the case.

[48] Stannard's masterpiece—his best known work and his most important commission[30]—is Thorpe Frolic, Afternoon (1824), an oil painting that shows a large civic regatta.

[50] It was organised by John Harvey, who aspired to promote the city as an international port, and entailed sailing and rowing competitions, picnics, speeches and music.

[49] The painting it was first exhibited in Norwich in 1825,[51] the year the Norfolk Chronicle wrote "of all the gay, the bustling, the delightful scenes in nature, we know of none more refreshing and enchanting than a 'Water Frolic'.

[49] Stannard shows the beauty of the setting by painting in the fields beyond the river, woodland, and the buildings of the gentry, whilst also recreating the event using his artistic licence.

The Norwich Mercury also admired his painting, noting it to be a work of great skill, and adding that it was a striking blend of fact and fiction.

[54] The naval historian Oliver Warner, who congratulated Stannard on the work, describing it as "entrancing" and adding that it is "a picture good enough in itself to justify a long journey".

"[21] In the opinion of author Derek Clifford, Stannard "was a shining exception to the Norwich landscapists' inability to draw the human figure.

[57] He skilfully portrayed human figures, typically depicted within their working environment, and revealing their personalities in a way that was unusual among the Norwich School etchers.