This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Richard Brydges Beechey HRHA (1808–1895)
Like his contemporaries George Mounsey Atkinson and Edwin Hayes RHA (1820-1904), and the later William Coulter, Richard Brydges Beechey was a marine painter of distinction, except he also became an Admiral of the British Navy and specialized in naval vessels. As well as being a fine naval artist, Richard Brydges Beechey also completed a number of oil paintings and drawings on marine subjects.
Born on 17 May 1808, he was the son of two other artists. His father was Sir William Beechey RA (1753-1839), an eminent painter and Royal Academician, who - in addition to being a fine portraitist - was also an accomplished marine artist whose works included illustrations of ports and a variety of naval scenes.
His mother, Lady Beechey, who also showed at the Royal Academy, was a talented miniaturist. His brother was the celebrated sea captain Frederick William Beechey.
Whether he received any formal training in painting or drawing is unknown. In any event, like his brother he joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14 and spent several years at sea before returning and marrying Frideswide Maria Moore, the eldest daughter of Robert Smyth of Portlick Castle, County Westmeath, Ireland.
This was followed by further service under the colours in the West Indies and the Eastern Pacific Ocean where Beechey served under the command of his brother. He must have developed and maintained his interest in art while at sea, because in 1832, when only 24, he exhibited a number of fine marine paintings at the Royal Academy (as an honorary exhibitor), after which he spent time in Ireland as a waterway surveyor. Whilst surveying the River Shannon in the 1840s, he executed a number of detailed, topographical drawings as well as several excellent watercolours. (Source: Watercolours of Ireland, by Crookshank and Glin, 1994).
For the next 25 years Beechey devoted himself to both his naval career and his painting, eventually attaining the rank of admiral. Although no sketchbooks have been found, it seems likely that he sketched throughout his travels, as his later oil paintings appear to be retrospective views based on earlier drawings. In later life (1858-77) he showed regularly at the Royal Academy in London, where he also exhibited at the British Institution and the Society of British Artists. In addition, for many years, he exhibited marine scenes and paintings of ships at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in Dublin. In 1868 he was made an honorary member.
Most of his compositions portrayed ships in stormy conditions, a genre which, according to one art critic, prevented him from achieving the popularity commensurate with his painterly skills.
Source:
Online Encyclopedia of Irish and World Art
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/irish-artists/richard-beechey.htm |
This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  A part of the English exploration voyage to California led by Captain
Frederick William Beechey in 1826-27, Richard Beechey, younger brother
of the Captain and a member of the Royal Navy, was a guest on the ship
and could take artistic license with his landscape painting, something
not allowed the official artist, William Smyth. In California, he
painted scenes of Monterey and the Presidio in San Francisco and did
one of the first mission paintings: The Mission of San Carlos, Upper California, 1827.
"Because his execution is creative, expressive, and lively, his
California landscapes began to look very much like European pastoral
views. Foliage is more luxuriant than normal for California,
scrawny California cattle become fat and content European cows, and the
inhabitants are 'peasants' strolling paths and roads that pass
picturesque adobes and shanties." (Moure 19-20)
In 1826 and
1827, Beechey went to Hawaii on board the "HMS Blossom" and made
sketches and watercolors of the people and landscape. ...he "filled his
sketchbook with the scenes that he later turned into more developed
watercolors". (Forbes 104)
Beechey was born in England, the son
of British portrait artist Sir William Beechey, and trained as an
artist, which gave credibility to his paintings that resulted from his
travels during his naval career (he became a commander).
Source:
David Forbes, Encounters With Paradise
Nancy Moure, Art in California, 450 Years
Peter Hastings Falk, Who Was Who in American Art |
This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in England on May 17, 1808, Richard Brydges Beechey was the son of
famous portraitist Sir William Beechey. As a midshipman in the
Royal Navy, the younger Beechey was on a surveying expedition of the
Bering Strait when the ship wintered in San Francisco in the years 1826
and 1827.
While in California he painted watercolors of Monterey and its
Presidio. Later in life he became an admiral in the Royal Navy
and an accomplished painter of marine views.
He died in Plymouth, England on March 8, 1895.
Collection:
California Palace of the Legion of Honor
Bancroft Library (UC Berkeley). | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Monterey Adobe Capital of California; First 100 Years of Painting in California (J. Van Nostrand); Yesterday's Artists on the Monterey Peninsula. | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
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Richard Beechey is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Artists who painted Hawaii
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