George Duncan Beechey (1798 – 6 December 1852) was an English portrait painter.

Life and career

Beechey was the fourth child of two painters, Sir

William Beechey Sir William Beechey (12 December 175328 January 1839) was an English portraitist during the golden age of British painting. Early life Beechey was born at Burford, Oxfordshire, on 12 December 1753, the son of William Beechey, a solicitor, an ...

and his second wife, Anne Jessop.John Wilson, ‘Beechey, Sir William (1753–1839)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200
accessed 2 May 2017
/ref> He was a godson of

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. He was the brother of Captain

Frederick William Beechey Frederick William Beechey (17 February 1796 – 29 November 1856) was an English naval officer, artist, explorer, hydrographer and writer. Life and career He was the son of two painters, Sir William Beechey, RA and his second wife, Anne ...

, admiral and painter

Richard Brydges Beechey Richard Brydges Beechey (1808 – 14 March 1895) was an Anglo-Irish painter and admiral in the Royal Navy. Early life Beechey was born to two British painters, Sir William Beechey and his second wife, Anne Jessop.John Wilson, ‘Beechey, ...

, and the portraitist

Henry William Beechey Henry William Beechey (1788/89 – 4 August 1862) was an English painter and explorer. His father was the painter William Beechey, Sir William Beechey, Royal Academy, RA and his stepmother was Anne Beechey, Anne Jessop.John Wilson, 'Beechey, Si ...

. His father’s position as royal portraitist allowed Beechey to secure portrait commissions from royal circles. His subjects included

Prince Augustus Frederick Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, (27 January 1773 – 21 April 1843) was the sixth son and ninth child of King George III and his queen consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He was the only surviving son of George III who did not ...

, Duke of

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

and

Bowyer Edward Sparke Bowyer Edward Sparke (27 April 1759 – 4 April 1836) was an English bishop. Life He was born at Bury St Edmunds, and was admitted a pensioner at Pembroke College, Cambridge on 27 October 1777, where he matriculated in 1778. He graduated B. ...

(1759-1836), Bishop of Chester. Beechey exhibited his paintings at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

between 1817 and 1834. Beechey journeyed to Egypt from 1821 to 1822. In the 1830s, he travelled to India, where he was appointed

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

to the

Nawab Nawab (Balochi language, Balochi: نواب; ar, نواب; bn, নবাব/নওয়াব; hi, नवाब; Punjabi language, Punjabi : ਨਵਾਬ; Persian language, Persian, Punjabi language, Punjabi , Sindhi language, Sindhi, Urd ...

Awadh Awadh (), known in British historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a region in the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It is synonymous with the Kośāla region of ...

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

. Beechey held that position until

Muhammad Ali Shah Nasser-ud-daula Mu'in ad-Din Muhammad Ali Shah (1774 – May 7, 1842), was the third King of Oudh from 7 July 1837 to 7 May 1842. Biography Muhammad Ali Shah was son of Saadat Ali Khan II, brother of Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah and uncle of Nasir ...

died in 1842. Beechey retired in India and continued to paint. Beechey's paintings are fairly rare; some paintings may have been destroyed during the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

.Mary Webster, ‘Beechey, George Duncan (1797–1852)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200
accessed 2 May 2017
/ref>

References

* *G. D. S. Beechey. ''The eighth child: George Duncan Beechey, 1797-1852, Royal Portrait Painter to the last four kings of Oudh'' (Excalibur Press of London, 1994).

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beechey, George Duncan 1798 births 1852 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters English portrait painters Court painters 19th-century English male artists