Jameson, Joan (1892–1953), still life, figure and landscape painter, was born Joan Moira Maud, in London on 4 October 1892, elder of the two daughters of Sir Richard John Musgrave , 5th baronet, DL and JP of Tourin, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford, and Jesse Sophia, daughter of the Rt Hon. Robert Dunsmuir of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She was educated at home and in Paris, where she studied art at the Académie Julian. She married Thomas Ormsby Jameson of Rock House, Ardmore, Co. Waterford, captain of the rifle brigade, on 11 June 1920. They lived in London until 1929 and, when her father died, returned to live in Tourin, Waterford. Her husband was a noted sportsman and played cricket for England.
Jameson continued to make regular visits to London, which offered a greater choice of venues for exhibiting. Three of the London galleries showed her work: the Goupil, the Redfern, and the Leicester, which gave her two one-person shows, in 1933 and 1937, in which she exhibited over sixty paintings. In Dublin, in contrast, the small gallery of the Dublin Painters Society at 7 St Stephen's Green provided the only outlet for contemporary artists working outside the academic tradition and, as a member, she exhibited there regularly (1938–48).
Jameson was a prolific artist of considerable talent and her work always attracted critical attention, particularly from 1943 when she started showing with the Irish Exhibition of Living Art; she continued to show there until 1953. Edward Sheehy, who wrote the ‘Art notes’ for the Dublin Magazine, noted her as a painter of ‘courage and distinction’, particularly in her dramatic handling of the nude, and her decorative treatment in ‘Red lilies’ (1948 exhibition); he also praised her handling of colour (1949 exhibition). Eric Newton, an independent art critic from England, selected the entries for the Living Art exhibition in 1951, and James White in the Bell praised his good taste in his choice of Jameson's ‘Mother and child’, which was shown with the smaller works. She had moved at this stage from Tourin to her husband's family home, Rock House, Ardmore, Co. Waterford. Her work was included in the Contemporary Irish Art Exhibition at Aberystwyth, Wales, in 1953.
Her social circle was large and varied, and many of her friends were from the artistic and literary community. Norah McGuinness (qv) and the writer Molly Keane (qv) were especially close to her and were regular visitors to her house. She had two sons, William Shane Musgrave and Julian Richard Musgrave. She died 22 September 1953 and was buried at Ardmore, Co. Waterford. Her headstone was carved, complete with palette and brushes, by the sculptor Seamus Murphy (qv). In her memory a selection of her work, on loan from her husband and friends, was shown at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1954. The most recent exhibition of her work was a 1989 retrospective held at the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, and in the RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin.