John Adams 1767-1829, by Richard Beechey, 1825
Richard Brydges Beechey, 1808–1895 was the youngest son, and one of eighteen children, of another famous artist, Sir William Beechey and entered the Royal Naval College as a first class volunteer in 1821, aged thirteen. In 1825 he joined HMS Blossom under the command of his older brother, Captain Frederick William Beechey and although there was an official artist to the expedition, Mate William Smyth, on board to record everything encountered, Richard painted throughout the voyage and in 1832, when only 24, he exhibited a number of fine marine paintings at the Royal Academy as an honorary exhibitor. Eventually rising to the rank of Admiral, in later life he continued to show regularly at the Royal Academy in London.
HMS Blossom was an 18-gun Cormorant-class sloop-of-war. In 1825, Frederick Beechey was appointed to command her his task being to explore the Bering Strait in concert with Franklin and Parry operating from the east. En route, from the 5th to 21st of December 1825, he stopped at Pitcairn. In the summer of 1826, he passed the strait and penetrated as far as 71°23'31" N., and 156°21'30" W., reaching a point only 146 miles west of that reached by Franklin's expedition from the Mackenzie river. The whole voyage lasted more than three years and in the course of it Beechey discovered several islands in the Pacific. The drawing above is taken from Volume I of his two volume report of the voyage published in 1831. Narrative of A Voyage To The Pacific And Beering's Strait, To Co-Operate With The Polar Expeditions Performed In His Majesty's Ship Blossom, Under The Command Of Captain F. W. Beechey, R. N. In The Years 1825, 26, 27, 28
There is a magnificent portrait of Frederick in the Maritime Museum at Greenwich painted by yet another Beechey artist, his brother, George Duncan.
John Adams 1767-1829, by Richard Beechey, 1825
Richard Brydges Beechey, 1808–1895 was the youngest son, and one of eighteen children, of another famous artist, Sir William Beechey and entered the Royal Naval College as a first class volunteer in 1821, aged thirteen. In 1825 he joined HMS Blossom under the command of his older brother, Captain Frederick William Beechey and although there was an official artist to the expedition, Mate William Smyth, on board to record everything encountered, Richard painted throughout the voyage and in 1832, when only 24, he exhibited a number of fine marine paintings at the Royal Academy as an honorary exhibitor. Eventually rising to the rank of Admiral, in later life he continued to show regularly at the Royal Academy in London.
HMS Blossom was an 18-gun Cormorant-class sloop-of-war. In 1825, Frederick Beechey was appointed to command her his task being to explore the Bering Strait in concert with Franklin and Parry operating from the east. En route, from the 5th to 21st of December 1825, he stopped at Pitcairn. In the summer of 1826, he passed the strait and penetrated as far as 71°23'31" N., and 156°21'30" W., reaching a point only 146 miles west of that reached by Franklin's expedition from the Mackenzie river. The whole voyage lasted more than three years and in the course of it Beechey discovered several islands in the Pacific. The drawing above is taken from Volume I of his two volume report of the voyage published in 1831. Narrative of A Voyage To The Pacific And Beering's Strait, To Co-Operate With The Polar Expeditions Performed In His Majesty's Ship Blossom, Under The Command Of Captain F. W. Beechey, R. N. In The Years 1825, 26, 27, 28
There is a magnificent portrait of Frederick in the Maritime Museum at Greenwich painted by yet another Beechey artist, his brother, George Duncan.