Joseph Clark is known for capturing the spirit of Victorian England such as household games happily played by friends and family. Such works are The Draught Players, The Chess Players and Checkmate painted in 1874.
The Chess Players was one of the 2 works that he showed in 1860 at the Royal Academy, where he exhibited regularly from 1857 through 1904. Another notable work which hung at the academy was a religious subject, Hagar and Ishmael. Clark is also known to have sent many of his paintings to America, which may be the case for The Chess Players which resides in a private collection in the USA. In 1876 he was awarded a medal in Philadelphia for two of his works, The Sick Child and The Bird's Nest.