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an engineer, he planned Tilbury Fort and the works at Sheerness. ' BECK WITH, TucmA8,portraitpainter. Was the son of a respectable attorney in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and was apprenticed to a house-painter at Wake- field. Then, showing a taste for drawing, he became locally reputed as a clever portrait painter, and with the feeling of an antiquary drew every church and object of antiquity in the neighbourhood, till his drawings in pencil or water-colour formed an important collection. He was well- known for his antiquarian knowledge. He published ' A Walk in and about the City of York/ and was elected F.S.A. He obtained a patent for a hardened crayon which held a good point. During the latter part of his life lie resided in York, and died there February 17, 1786.
BEECHEY, Sir William, Knt., R.A., portrait painter. Was born at Burford, in Oxfordshire, December 12, 1753. He is said by an early contemporary to have been originally a house-painter ; other accounts state that he was articled to a solicitor at Stowe, Gloucestershire, and was transferred to a solicitor in London. Here he became acquainted with some students of the Royal Academy and enamoured with the fine arts. He had been restless in his law studies, and his master being prevailed upon to re- lease him, he devoted himself earnestly to the profession of his own choice, and was admitted a student of the Academy in 1772. In 1775 he exhibited some small portraits, and making some progress he painted for a time in London, and then tried Norwich^ where he produced some conversation-pieces in the Hogarth man- ner. He remained there four or five years, and first tried life-size portraits in 1783, when he painted a whole-length, with some others. He had some extinguished sitters, and he also tried some subject pictures. He then returned to the Metro-
golis, and took a house in Lower Brook treet, where he soon gained both practice and celebrity. He afterwards removed to Hill Street, Berkeley Square, then to George Street, Hanover Square, and finally to Harley Street. He was elected A.R.A. in 1793, and the same year painted a portrait of Queen Charlotte, who appointed nim Her Majesty's portrait painter. He was fortunate to gain the Court favour, and in 1798 he painted a large equestrian portrait of George III., with portraits of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York at a review in Hyde Park, and the same year received the honour of knight- hood, and was elected a royal academician. The above large work has been called his chef-d'oeuvre, and was much admired at the time. It is, with several other por- traits by him, in the Hampton Court
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Gallery, and has at least the merit of solid, honest painting; but he has failed to overcome the ungamly military uniforms of that day, and his composition is faulty, and the work stiff and ineffective. He afterwards painted for the Prince of Wales portraits of the princesses, and then whole- length portraits of all the royal family, and for the Queen the entire portrait aecor- ations of a room at Frogmore. Enjoying the favour of the Court, fashion followed him, and many of the most distinguished of his day were among his sitters. In his early oareer he had painted some subject pictures, but his art was essentially por- trait. His chief merit was the accuracy of his likenesses. His colouring was deli- cate and sweet, particularly in his female portraits, but his draperies were flimsy, his females want grace, and his males charac- ter. Yet he was not without much merit, though his works are not likely to sustain the high reputation which he enjoyed in his lifetime. He sold his art collection of pictures, books, and engravings in 1836. and retired to Hampstead, where he died January 28, 1839, aged 86. • BEECHEY, George V., portrait paint- er. Son of the foregoing. Was brought up as a portrait painter, and followed his father's manner. Commencing in 1817, he was a constant exhibitor at the Academy for several years, and so long as his father continued in active practice he had many sitters, including some persons of distinc- tion. Soon after 1828, his practice having rapidly declined, he went to Calcutta, ana his last exhibited portrait, in 1832, was sent from that city. He was for a long time settled in Lucknow, and was Court painter to the King of Oudh. He is believed to have been living there in 1855, but to have died before the Indian Mutiny in 1857.
BEESLEY, Robert, still-life painter. He was a member of trie Free Society of Artists, and exhibited with the Society, 1763-80, fruit, birds, landscapes, and some subjects in oil.
BEHNES, William, sculptor. Was the son of a Hanoverian, a pianoforte maker, who had settled in London. He was born there, and in 1795 was taken, when in childhood, by his family to Dublin, and was intended to follow his father's business, but entering the schools of the Dublin Academy he showed abilities which led him to art. He, however, returned with his family to London, and settling with them at the East End of the Metro- polis, he continued to work with his father. He had no less retained his art tastes, and acquired a great facility in drawing por- traits on vellum, and the family moving westward he tried portraiture as a pro- fession, and by his great diligence soon rose into notice. He first exliibited at the 2 35
