| Thomas Beach was a portrait painter, centred on South West England. He studied in St. Martin's Lane Academy in London and with Reynolds from 1760 to early 1762. His earliest portraits (1762) show a strong Reynolds' influence, but this is no longer in evidence when he started to exhibit in 1772. His year's pattern of activity is known from a diary for 1798, which alone has survived. He set out from Bath in June and traveled round Dorset and Somerset until December, painting portraits in the houses of the county nobility and gentry. This had certainly been going on for years. He usually painted single portraits, often in a feigned oval, and often signed and dated; but there are interesting groups: 'The Stapleton family', 1789 (Holburne of Menstrie Museum, Bath) and 'The Tyndall family', 1797 (loan to University of Bristol), which have a pleasing and provincial awkwardness. The likenesses are usually excellent, without concessions to flattery, and easy to recognise. Soon after 1800 he gave up painting and retired to Dorchester. |
