Joseph Edward Southall (Father: Joseph Sturge Southall; Mother: Elizabeth Maria Baker; Spouse: Anna Elizabeth Baker)was a leading English painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most renowned as the central figure of the Birmingham Group of Artist-Craftsmen and a pioneer in the revival of egg tempera painting in Britain.

Born into a Quaker family in Nottingham, Southall moved to Birmingham after the early death of his father. He was articled to the prominent architectural firm Martin & Chamberlain, but he found the discipline too restrictive, believing a true architect should also master painting and carving. Studying part-time at the Birmingham School of Art, he absorbed the philosophies of John Ruskin and the emerging Arts and Crafts movement.

His defining artistic moment came during a trip to Italy in 1883. Utterly captivated by the Italian Primitives, the frescoes of Benozzo Gozzoli, and the tempera paintings of Vittore Carpaccio, Southall returned to England determined to revive these lost Renaissance techniques. Unlike oil painting, the egg-based tempera medium allowed him to achieve luminous, jewel-like colors. Though his early experiments were fraught with difficulty, he eventually mastered the medium, becoming so dedicated that he even kept his own chickens to ensure a steady supply of egg yolks.

Southall became a mentor and leader to the Birmingham Group, promoting not just painting, but a holistic approach to craftsmanship. True to the Arts and Crafts ethos, his works were often set in elaborately carved, gilded frames designed and crafted in collaboration with his wife, Anna. Beyond his art, Southall’s Quaker background fostered a lifelong commitment to pacifism, leading him to serve as the chairman of the Birmingham Independent Labour Party during and after World War I. He remained a central pillar of the British art establishment until his death in 1944.

Style classification:
Though catalogued primarily under the Arts and Crafts movement via the Birmingham Group, Southall’s work also merits placement within Symbolism, on the strength of his direct artistic descent from Edward Burne-Jones — himself named among Symbolism’s founding generation by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His flat, unmodulated color, simplified form, and turn toward myth and allegory over observed reality align squarely with that movement’s visual language. A secondary thread, via his early tutor Edwin Moore (brother of Albert Moore), links him to Aestheticism’s “art for art’s sake” emphasis on decorative beauty. As with several revisionist reappraisals in art history, this reading extends beyond the conventional label rather than replacing it.

Active in others filds :
Fresco Painting, Frame Making and Gilding, Pacifist/Political Activism (Independent Labour Party Chairman), Woodcarving.

Notable Collaborations :
Southall collaborated extensively with his wife, Anna Elizabeth Baker, who decorated and gilded his bespoke wooden frames. As a leading member of the Birmingham Group, he worked closely with artists like Arthur Gaskin, Charles March Gere, and Henry Payne. He also co-founded the Society of Painters in Tempera alongside prominent figures such as William Holman Hunt and Walter Crane, and was personally encouraged in his early career by John Ruskin and Edward Burne-Jones.

Joseph Edward Southall Legacy :
Joseph Southall is remembered as the primary driving force behind the British revival of egg tempera and buon fresco painting. He served as a crucial bridge between the romanticism of the late Pre-Raphaelites, the material honesty of the Arts and Crafts movement, and the emerging Symbolist trends of the early 20th century. His dedication to the physical, chemical, and historical craft of painting left an enduring mark on the British art curriculum, and his masterwork fresco Corporation Street, Birmingham, in March 1914 remains one of the finest public murals of its era.

Selected Notable Works :
Cinderella (1895) , Beauty Receiving the White Rose from her Father (1898–1899) , The Coral Necklace (1904) , Changing the Letter (1908–1909) , Bagnio della Bagnarola (1909) , Corporal Works of Mercy (1913) , Corporation Street, Birmingham, in March 1914 (1916) , The Agony in the Garden (1925) , Asolando (1930) , Cymon and Iphigenia (1942)

Awards and Honors :
President of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA), Member of the New English Art Club (NEAC), Member of the Art Workers Guild, Member of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours (RWS), Member of the Union Internationale des Beaux-Arts et des Lettres (Paris).

Exhibitions & Art Venues :
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts (London), Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA), Galeries Georges Petit (Paris), New English Art Club, Tate Britain, Fine Art Society (London), Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, Ghent International Exhibition, The Leicester Galleries.