Joe Selby was an unheralded, but important, Florida nautical painter who worked on the docks of Miami from 1920 to 1959. In 1905, at the age of twelve, Selby lost his left leg while working as a deck hand on a freighter. That accident likely led to his career as an artist. Selby would approach owners of yachts docked at the Miami City Pier, “Let me paint a picture of your boat!”
Joe Selby. Miami. New Northland. Oil on board, 11 by 14 and three quarters inches.
For $25 in the early years and $75 later, Selby would paint a detailed portrait of the boat. A black man, he lived in Overtown in public housing. Later he was able to build a house at 22nd Court. Selby died at Jackson Memorial Hospital on September 1, 1960.
The Miami Herald of September 5, 1960, carried the following obituary, ” ‘Old Joe,’ Nautical Artist, Dead at 69. Joe Selby, a 69 year old one legged artist who befriended millionaires by sketching their yachts, is dead. Though ‘Old Joe’ sat on Miami’s docks and did paintings for some of the country’s most famous millionaires, he died practically penniless. He had been in ill health for about three months before his death at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Thursday. He had no wife or family and lived alone. The well known Negro rented quarters at 6240 N.W. 22nd Ct. He had been a Miami resident for more than 50 years, following a sea going accident which cost him a leg. ‘Old Joe’ was a familiar figure to dock workers and boat owners. Among the financial moguls he painted for were the Rockefellers, the Morgans, Alfred Sloan, Charles Kettering, William Leeds, Swedish Industrialist Axel WennerGren, and Arthur Curtis James. Alabama born, Selby went to sea in sailing craft when he was a boy. He lost a leg in 1905 when a breaking towline so mangled his left leg that it had to be amputated. The accident began for him a new career, painting pictures of the boats that had become his life. Before his illness, he was taking orders for sketches at $25 to $75 apiece.”
Born: January 7, 1893, Mobile, Alabama.
Died: September 1, 1960, Miami, Florida.
Joe Selby. Miami. Uss Atule, 1955. Oil on canvas, 14 by 24 inches.
