Richard Brydges Beechey
Richard Brydges Beechey ( born May 17, 1808 in London, England; † March 14, 1895 in Southsea, Hampshire, England ) was an Anglo- Irish painter and Admiral of the Royal Navy.
Life
Beechey was the son of the English Court and portrait painter Henry William Beechy, his mother was a miniature painter who made exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts. At the age of 13 he entered 1821 in the Royal Naval College in Greenwich one. His first command have taken him on board the HMS Seringapatam to the West Indies. His artistic training was sponsored by his father, was a major factor, however, to his skill training in the Navy in drawing and watercolor painting ( for the perfection of the representations in mapping ) at. 1825 drove Beechey aboard the HMS Blossom, which was under the command of his elder brother Frederick William Beechey, three years around the Pacific. Purpose of the trip was to John Franklin, who explored the northern coast of Alaska from the mouth of the Mackenzie River coming with boats, and William Edward Parry, who attempted the Northwest Passage by HMS Hecla and HMS Fury to navigate to at Chamisso Iceland in Kotzebue Sound expect. As neither Parry nor Franklin arrived, the Blossom went to meet them to Icy Cape. Although there was no meeting here, the expedition was a great success due to their yield of botanical and other findings.
Starting from 1835 Beechey was until his active duty end so concerned to map the western and southern coast of Ireland for the Royal Navy. In 1844 he married Mary Moore peace Wide Smyth ( 1819-1885 ) from Portlick Castle, Athlone, County Westmeath, Ireland. The couple had subsequently three daughters and a son. The Royal Navy promoted him after his retirement from active service in 1864 as Captain twice within the admiral ranks, most recently in 1885 for Admiral.
Towards the end of his life, Beechy moved back to Plymouth in the south of England. After the death of his first wife he married in 1888 Frances Stewart, whose father Stewart of Trinity College, Dublin in Ireland.
Other famous names among Beechey's siblings were the portrait painter and Egyptologist Henry William Beechey (1788-1862) and the portrait painter George Duncan Beechey (1798-1852) as well as the priest Saint Vincent Beechey ( 1806-1899 ).
== Works (selection ) == From 1858 Beechey presented regularly at the Royal Academy in London, also at the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom and the Royal Society of British Artists. His seascapes and maritime paintings he exhibited for years in the Royal Hibernian Academy, an honorary member in 1868 he was.
His works are shown among others in the following museums:
- National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London: HMS Erebus Passing through the Chain of Mountain, 1842, oil on canvas, 78.8 cm × 111.8 cm
- First Come, First Served. A Pilot Cutter Racing to a Ship, 1873, oil on canvas, 92.5 cm × 138.5 cm
- New Zealand National Maritime Museum, Auckland, New Zealand HMS Orpheus, 1863, oil on canvas
- National Maritime Museum of Ireland, Dún Laoghaire, Ireland Kingstown Harbour, oil on canvas
Other well-known paintings are:
- The Battle of Cape St. Vincent ( Battle of Cape St. Vincent ( 1797) ), which was in 1881 painted by Beechey on canvas.
- Lighthouses at Eddystone ( The Lighthouses of Eddystone ). The painting from 1882 showing the old tower and commissioned in the same year, the new lighthouse.