James Carroll Beckwith (September 23, 1852 – October 24, 1917) was an American landscape, portrait and genre painter whose Naturalist style led to his recognition in the late nineteenth and very early twentieth century as a respected figure in American art.

Biography

Carroll Beckwith, as he preferred to be known, was born in Hannibal, Missouri on September 23, 1852, the son of Charles and Melissa Beckwith. However, he grew up in Chicago where his father started a wholesale grocery business. His grandmother was Hannah Yale, a distant cousin was fur trader James Murray Yale, members of the Yale family. In 1868, aged 16, he studied art at the Chicago Academy of Design under Walter Shirlaw until the great fire of 1871 destroyed everything (including much of the heart of the city).

He then went to New York and studied at the National Academy of Design (of which he afterwards became a member) in New York City under Lemuel Wilmarth and later traveled on to Paris, staying there from November 1873 until 1878. In New York, he lived in his millionaire great-uncle's "Sherwood Studio Building", which was built specifically for artists, and was close to Cornelius Vanderbilt II House.

thumb|upright|[[Thomas Eakins, Portrait of J. Carroll Beckwith, 1904]]

In Paris he took drawing courses with Adolphe Yvon and studied painting under Carolus Duran who in 1877 selected Beckwith and John Singer Sargent to help him with a mural for the Palais du Luxembourg. Returning to the United States in 1878, he gradually became a prominent figure in American art. His talents as a draftsman secured him a professorship at the Art Students League of New York, where he taught from 1878 to 1882 and from 1886 to 1887.

Beckwith took an active part in the formation of The Fine Arts Society, and was President of the National Free Art League, which attempted to secure the repeal of the American duty on works of art. Among his portraits are those of William Merritt Chase (1882), Miss Jordan (1883), Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Allibone Janvier, John Schofield and William M. Walton. He taught at the Art Students League of New York - where Violet Oakley was one of his students.

Beckwith received many awards including an Honorable Mention at the Paris Exposition of 1889 and a gold medal at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895. He also won an award at the Exposition Universelle at Paris in 1899 for what is probably his most celebrated work, his 1886 portrait of William M. Walton. He won a gold medal at the Charleston Exposition in 1902

Carroll returned to Paris in 1893 to paint a number of murals and then returned to the United States to paint murals on one of the domes in the Liberal Arts Building at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago later in 1893.

His papers, including his sketchbooks and the diaries he kept from 1871 until his death in 1917 are held by the National Academy of Design in New York City. During his life, he was President of the Fencers Club, and member of the Episcopal Church, National Academy of Design, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Water Color Society, Century Association, Lotos Club, and "Social Register".

Selection of paintings

<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="5">

File:Beckwith James Carroll Woman with Guitar.jpg|Woman with Guitar

File:Beckwith James Carroll Portrait of Evelyn Nesbit.jpg|Portrait of Evelyn Nesbit, c. 1901.

File:Beckwith James Carroll Sylvan Toilette.jpg|Sylvan Toilette, c. 1898

File:Beckwith James Carroll A Wistful Look.jpg|A Wistful Look.

File:Beckwith Mark Twain Portrait.jpg|Mark Twain, 1890.

File:Carroll Beckwith - Bassin de Neptune, Versailles - 1974.69.18 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|Bassin de Neptune Versailles.

File:Beckwith James Carroll L-Empereur.jpg|L'empereur.

File:Carroll Beckwith - The Palace of the Popes and Pont d'Avignon - 1974.69.10 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|The Palace of the Popes and Pont d'Avignon.

File:Carroll Beckwith - Cathedral at le Puy - 1974.69.1 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|Cathédrale Notre-Dame du Puy (Le Puy-en-Velay).

File:Painting of Paul Belloni Du Chaillu 1831-1903 Painted by James Carroll Beckwith (September 23, 1852 – October 24, 1917) painted 1878.jpg|1878 Paul Belloni Du Chaillu

</gallery>

References

  • James Carroll Beckwith diary (in the New York Historical Society), 1895 from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
  • James Carroll Beckwith papers, 1878–1924 also from the Archives of American art
  • Two Beckwith auction catalogs from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF)
  • https://snapjudgment.org/past-life-detective From National Public Radio's Snap Judgement, a radio program about a police detective who believes he is the reincarnation of James Carroll Beckwith