Josephine Paddock was born in New York City in 1885. She was a versatile painter of oil, watercolor (portraits, genre, and city scenes) active in New York. Her sister Ethel Louise Paddock, born two years later would also become an accomplished artist.

Josephine Paddock would study at the New York Art Students League under the tutelage of Henri, Chase and Cox. Josephine and her sister Ethel frequently summered at the art colony in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

They often exhibited their paintings together during there vacations. Josephine exhibited nationally, as well as internationally; including the National Academy of Design, NYC, Art Institute of Chicago, Paris Salon, 1951, Royal Institute of London, Berkshire Museum of Art, Parrish Museum, South Hampton, N. Y. In 1913 at Armory Show in New York City she exhibited two small, sketchy watercolor sketches of swans.