£2,500 - £4,000
TITLE: Portrait of Joseph Greaves esq
SIZE: 74.5x62cm
MEDIA: Oils On Canvas
DATE:
Inscribed and dated 1850.
FRAMES:
Exceptional quality original ornate gilt frames.
ARTIST: Sir WILLIAM BEECHEY RA (12 December 1753 – 28 January 1839)
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
From Pole To Pole & All The Kings & Queens
British portraitist during the golden age of British painting.
The list of sitters below is a who’s who of a generation of British society.
(Also a fascinating side note in the history of Sir William Beechey is Beechey Island named after the artist by his explorer son. The largest none inhabited island in the world.
It is a place of pilgrimage for sailors attempting to navigate the Northwest Passage.
Three Victorian seaman from the lost Franklin expedition, are still buried in the frozen ground in the Canadian High Arctic of Beechey Island. The bodies unchanged due to the unique temperatures of Beechey Island.
The ships sailed from England in May 1845 with 134 men, under the leadership of Sir John Franklin. They were last seen in Baffin Bay in July of the same year, when five expedition members were discharged and sent home with whalers. After this, there was only silence).
Beechey Collections
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.
Portraits of Royalty, Prime Ministers, Political figures and 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
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 he was brought up by his uncle Samuel, a solicitor.
The uncle was determined that the young Beechey should likewise follow a career in the law. 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."
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.
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.
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.
In 1798, he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy and painted George III and the Prince of Wales.
Beechey's portraits of the turn of the century are considered to be his most colourful and lively.
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.
In his 1978 novel Desolation Island, Patrick O'Brian wrote that Capt. Jack Aubrey had been painted by Beechey.
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.
They had many children together, including: Royal Navy captain, geographer, and politician Frederick William Beechey (1796–1856).
Excellent condition
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