Henry William Beechey (1788/89 – 4 August 1862) was an English painter and explorer. His father was the painter

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 ...

, RA and his stepmother was Anne Jessop.John Wilson, 'Beechey, Sir William (1753–1839)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200
Retrieved 2 May 2017
/ref> He followed his father's profession. He sent a marine subject to 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 ...

in 1829, and another in 1838 to the

British Institution The British Institution (in full, the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom; founded 1805, disbanded 1867) was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it w ...

Life and career

Beechey was born in 1789 or 1790. His mother, his father's first wife, had five children before her death. Beechey was brought up by his father

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. Both his father and stepmother were painters, and they married in 1793. They had many children together, and several of these would be notable painters. Beechey trained at the

.John Wilson, 'Beechey, Sir William (1753–1839)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200
Retrieved 3 May 2017
/ref> Some time before 1816, he had become secretary to Henry Salt, the British consul-general in Egypt, and at the latter's request accompanied

Giovanni Belzoni Giovanni Battista Belzoni (; 5 November 1778 – 3 December 1823), sometimes known as The Great Belzoni, was a prolific Italian explorer and pioneer archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities. He is known for his removal to England of the seven-ton ...

in that and the following year beyond the second cataract, for the purpose of studying and making designs of the fine monuments existing at Thebes. In the laborious excavation of the temple of Ipsambul, Beechey took his share; he also copied the paintings, in the king's tombs in the valley of Biban-el-Muluk, which had lately been opened by Belzoni. In common with Salt, Beechey had much to endure from Belzoni's suspicious and jealous nature (''Life and Correspondence of Henry Salt'', ed. Halls, volume ii.) About 1820 he returned to England, and the next year was appointed by

Earl Bathurst Earl Bathurst, of Bathurst in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. The medieval English word was Botehurst, thought to date at least from the 13th century. Bote is the origination of Battle, although the family ma ...

, on the part of the colonial office, to examine and report on the antiquities of the

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή ��παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...

, his brother, Captain Beechey, having been detached to survey the coast-line from Tripoli to Derna. The results of this expedition, which occupied the greater part of the years 1821 and 1822, were chronicled in a journal kept by the brothers, to which Henry Beechey added numerous drawings, illustrative of the art and natural peculiarities of the classic region they were exploring, many of which were left out when the narrative came to be published in 1828. Of the remainder of Beechey's life there is little record. He had seen much vicissitude, and in 1851 emigrated to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, where he died in 1862. He left a family. Besides his share in the above-mentioned work Beechey wrote a painstaking memoir of Sir

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

, prefixed to the edition of the latter's ''Literary Works'', published in 2 vols. octavo, London, 1835, and afterwards reprinted in Bohn's ''Standard Library'' edition, 2 vols. octavo, London, 1852. Beechey became a

fellow of the Society of Antiquaries A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

in 1825.Family information.

References

DNB references

These references are found in the DNB article referred to above.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beechey, Henry William 1862 deaths 1780s births 19th-century explorers Year of birth uncertain Place of birth missing 19th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English male artists Abu Simbel