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View alphabetical lists of all artists who are either Scottish or whose works are associated with Scotland currently featured on the site.
Select the initial of the artist's name that you are looking for. Scroll down the list until you find the name, and select it for more information about the artist and his or her work.
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Artists are organised by their most commonly-used names. This is usually but not always their surname.
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- Sir William Beechey
- James Watt, 1736 - 1819. Engineer, inventor of the steam engine
- 1806
- PG 2612
- On Display
- Scottish Art
Sir William Beechey (English, 1753 - 1839)
Sir William Beechey was a successful portrait painter with unparalleled royal patronage. His intended legal career was cut short by a chance meeting with students of the Royal Academy Schools and in 1772 Beechey entered the schools himself. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776. After five years in Norwich, he moved back to London in 1787 where he stepped into the vacuum left by Gainsborough?s death and Reynolds? retirement. He gained a reputation for straight-forward, unpretentious and careful portraiture and in 1793 he was appointed painter to Queen Charlotte. Not long afterwards he was made a member of the Royal Academy ? on King George?s request, it was rumoured ? but he fell from royal favour in 1806. He continued to exhibit at the Academy until the year before his death.
