Joseph De Martini studied at the National Academy of Design, where he became an associate, and at the Art Students League. He exhibited at the Macbeth Gallery and at Grand Central Moderns. His work is in the permanent collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Monhegan Museum.

Creating romantic interpretations of everyday scenes, Joseph de Martini divided his attention between darkened theaters and coastal scenes of New England. He was in his prime as an artist when abstraction became a popular style for American artists. A writer for Art Digest aptly wrote of de Martini's rugged seasides in 1942: "With painting-shadowed sides and strong, dark lines where rocks meet the water, he can create a pattern of great strength without declaring for abstraction and without losing the romance of place which gives his paintings their greatest appeal."

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