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Sir
William Beechey
RA
Sir William Beechey RA
	Sir William Beechey, self-portrait, c. 1800
Born	12 December 1753; Burford, Oxfordshire, England, Kingdom of Great Britain
Died	28 January 1839 (aged 85); London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Known for	Portrait painting
Spouses	Mary Ann Jones,; Anne Phyllis Jessop;

Sir William Beechey RA (12 December 1753 – 28 January 1839) was a British portraitist during the golden age of British painting.^[1]

Early life

Beechey was born at Burford, Oxfordshire, on 12 December 1753, the son of William Beechey, a solicitor, and his wife Hannah Read. Both parents died when he was still quite young in the early 1760s, and he and his siblings were brought up by his uncle Samuel, a solicitor who lived in nearby Chipping Norton.^[2]

The uncle was determined that the young Beechey should likewise follow a career in the law, and at an appropriate age he was entered as a clerk with a conveyancer near Stow-on-the-Wold. But as The Monthly Mirror later recorded in July 1798, he was: "Early foredoomed his [uncle's] soul to cross/ And paint a picture where he should engross."^[3]

Career

Beechey was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1772, where he is thought to have studied under Johan Zoffany. He first exhibited at the Academy in 1776. His earliest surviving portraits are small-scale full-length and conversation pieces which are reminiscent of Zoffany. In 1782, he moved to Norwich, where he gained several commissions, including a portrait of Sir John Wodehouse and a series of civic portraits for St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich. By 1787, he had returned to London, and in 1789, he exhibited a celebrated portrait of John Douglas, Bishop of Carlisle (now in Lambeth Palace). Beechey's career during this period is marked by a succession of adept and restrained portraits in the tradition of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Beechey's style perfectly suited the conventional taste of the royal family, and in 1793, he was commissioned to paint a full-length portrait of Queen Charlotte and subsequently named as her official portrait painter. That same year, he was elected as an associate member of the Royal Academy.^[4]

Following his royal appointment, the number of royal commissions he undertook increased markedly, and in 1797 he exhibited six royal portraits. In 1798, he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy^[5] and painted George III and the Prince of Wales Reviewing Troops for that year's academy's exhibition. This enormous composition depicts King George III, the Prince of Wales and staff officers on horseback at an imagined cavalry review in Hyde Park. The king was reported to be delighted with the painting and rewarded Beechey with a knighthood.^[4]

Joseph Farington's Diaries give many accounts of Beechey's relations with the royal family during this period, including his temporary fall from favour in 1804, which Farington attributes to the vagaries of George III's mental condition.

Beechey's portraits of the turn of the century are considered to be his most colourful and lively. They are closer to the flamboyant and free techniques employed by his younger rivals, John Hoppner and Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Royal patronage resumed in around 1813, when Beechey was appointed portrait painter to Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester, and culminated with his appointment in 1830 as principal portrait painter to King William IV. In 1830 he stood for election as President of the Royal Academy following the death of Thomas Lawrence, finishing second to Martin Archer Shee.^[6] In 1836, Beechey retired to Hampstead and on 9–11 June that year, the contents of his studio along with his collection were sold at Christie's.

Although capable of impetuousness and irascibility, Beechey was known for his generosity to students. In particular, he took a close interest in the career of the young John Constable.

Subjects

During a prolific career spanning half a century, Beechey painted many of the leading figures of his day. His sitters included:

Royalty and Prime Ministers	Political figures	Others
King George III King George IV King William IV Princess, later Queen Victoria Prince Ernest, later King of Hanover Queen Charlotte Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh Prince Edward, Duke of Kent Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister Arthur, 1st Duke of Wellington, Prime Minister	Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave, Foreign Secretary Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India James Cecil, 1st Marquess of Salisbury, statesman Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, field marshal Horatio, 1st Viscount Nelson, admiral John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, admiral Charles, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, general George, 1st Duke of Montagu George Douglas, 16th Earl of Morton Sir John Wodehouse, 1st Baron Wodehouse	Sarah Siddons, actress John Philip Kemble, actor Sir David Wilkie, RA, artist Paul Sandby, RA, artist John Carr, architect Edward Hodges Baily, RA, sculptor Joseph Nollekens, sculptor James Watt, FRS, inventor Sir Everard Home, Bt, surgeon Sir James Earle, surgeon Thomas Coutts, banker Philip Meadows Martineau, surgeon and Lord of the Manor of Carrow Edward Maltby, Bishop of Durham John Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury

In his 1978 novel Desolation Island, Patrick O'Brian wrote that Capt. Jack Aubrey had been painted by Beechey. The portrait, which showed Aubrey in Royal Navy uniform wearing the insignia of the Order of the Bath, hung in his home, Ashgrove Cottage.

Family

William Beechey's first marriage was to Mary Ann Jones (c. 1760–1793) in 1772 (other sources say 1778). Their children included British painter and Egyptologist Henry William Beechey (1788–1862).

Following his first wife's death, Beechey married the successful miniature painter Anne Phyllis Jessop (1764–1833) in 1793.^[7] They had many children together, including: Royal Navy captain, geographer, and politician Frederick William Beechey (1796–1856); painter George Duncan Beechey (1798–1852); clergyman St. Vincent Beechey (1806–1899); and painter and admiral in the British navy Richard Brydges Beechey (1808–1895).

Miss Harriet Beechey,
by William Beechey, c. 1800
Anne Jessop, Lady Beechey, by William Beechey, c. 1800

Prices at auction

Beechey's Portrait of James Watt sold for £153,440 at Sotheby's on 20 March 2003.^[8] His Portrait of Mirza Abu'l Hassan Khan, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of King George III sold for £181,600 at Christie's on 8 June 2006.^[9] His Portrait of George Douglas, 16th Earl of Morton in the dress of the Royal Company of Archers sold for £481,250 at Christie's on 5 July 2011.^[10] His portrait of The Dashwood Children sold at auction for $821,000 including premium at Christie's on 29 January 2014.^[11]

Gallery

Beechey's works are represented in many of the world's leading collections, including the Louvre, the Smithsonian Institution, the Royal Collection, the Royal Academy of Arts, the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Tate and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Edward Miles, 1785
Sir John Wodehouse, 1785
Dorothea Jordan as Rosalind, 1787
Admiral Jervis, 1787
The Dashwood Children, c. 1789
Paul Sandby, c. 1789
George Douglas, 16th Earl of Morton (1761–1827), c. 1790
John Carr, 1791
Sarah Siddons, 1793
Sir Francis Ford's Children Giving a Coin to a Beggar Boy, 1793
Thomas Law Hodges, 1795
Master James Hatch, 1796
Queen Charlotte, 1796
Princess Amelia, 1797
Frederica, Duchess of York, 1797
Portrait of George, Prince of Wales, c. 1798
George III and the Prince of Wales Reviewing Troops, 1798
Thomas Hope, 1798
Portrait of John Philip Kemble, 1799
Sketch for portrait of Horatio, 1800
Elizabeth Eden, Lady Godolphin (1780–1847), c. 1800
Portrait of Horatio Nelson, 1801
James Watt (1736–1819), c. 1802
Princess Augusta Sophia, c. 1802
George Rose, 1802
Portrait of Henry Addington, 1803
Princess Sophia of Gloucester, c.1803
Lord Mulgrave, 1807
Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, 1808
Henry Halford, 1809
John Duckworth, 1809
David Wilkie, c.1809
Mirza Abu'l Hassan Khan, 1809–10
Portrait of Francis Bourgeois, 1810
Portrait of Harriet Mellon, 1815
Portrait of Lord Beresford, c. 1815
Portrait of Thomas Picton, c. 1815
Portrait of Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, 1818
Edward, Duke of Kent, 1818
The Misses Plowden, 1819
Portrait of George Cockburn, 1820
Joseph Nollekens, 1822
Robert Grant, 1823
Joseph Stannard, 1824
Miss Windham, 1828
William IV, c.1830
Queen Adelaide, c. 1831

Coat of arms

Beechey was granted arms on 16 February 1829.^[12]

Coat of arms of William Beechey
	Crest An eagle displayed Azure charged on the breast and wings with an ermine spot Or each claw resting on a chaplet as in the Arms. Escutcheon Per fess Azure and Ermine a pale counterchanged on a chevron Gules between three eagles displayed Or a knights helmet proper between two chaplets gold. Motto Persta Atque Obdura

References

^ [1], Le Louvre, Retrieved 25 September 2018
^ Roberts 1907, p. 3.
^ "Sir William Beechey RA (1753–1839)". HistoricalPortraits.com. Philip Mould. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
^ ^a ^b Chisholm 1911.
^ Redgrave & Redgrave 1947, p. 131.
^ Hermann p.30
^ John Wilson, "Beechey, Sir William (1753–1839)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 Retrieved 2 May 2017
^ [2], Christie's, Retrieved 25 September 2018
^ [3], Christie's, Retrieved 25 September 2018
^ [4], Christie's, Retrieved 25 September 2018
^ [5], Christie's, Retrieved 25 September 2018
^ "Grant of Arms: Sir William Beechey 1829". Heraldry Online. 15 September 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2019.

Sources

Hermann, Like. Nineteenth Century British Painting. Charles de la Mare, 2000.
Redgrave, Richard; Redgrave, Samuel (1947) [1890]. A Century of Painters of the English School. Sampson Low, Marston.
Roberts, W. (1907). Sir William Beechey, R.A. London: Duckworth & Co.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Beechey, Sir William" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 640.
Laughton, John Knox (1885). "Beechey, Frederick William" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co.