Richmond Beetham

Richmond Beetham
Born1832
Horncastle, England
Died1912(1912-00-00) (aged 79–80)
Masterton, New Zealand
Known forOil paintings
Spouses
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(m. 1863; died 1910)​
Helen Hampton
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(m. 1910⁠–⁠1912)​

Richmond Beetham (1832–1912) was a British-born painter and magistrate.[1] He spent most of his life living in New Zealand.

Early life

Richmond Beetham was born in 1832 in Horncastle, England. He was the eldest son of Mary Beetham (née Brosley) and the portrait painter William Beetham.[2] He attended the Elizabethan Foundation School. In the mid-1850s, he moved to Victoria, before moving to Wellington, New Zealand in 1859, where his parents had also moved.[1][3]

Life in New Zealand

In 1862, he attained his first job as a public servant, working as a Receiver of Land Revenue in the Otago goldfields.[3] In 1863 he married Lucelle Frances Swainson, the daughter of naturalist and artist William Swainson.[3] That same year, he was appointed as a stipendiary magistrate in Queenstown, and later Napier and Timaru.[2] Eventually, he was moved to Christchurch in 1881, where he continued to work until his retirement in May 1903.[3]

Artist

Like his father, Beetham was a painter. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, he exhibited his works in New Zealand and abroad – including at the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London, and the 1889–90 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin.[2][4][5] He also exhibited his works at the Canterbury Society of Arts from 1881 to 1893, where he also served on the committee and as President.[1]

Later life

Beetham later moved to Masterton, where he died in 1912.[2]

Art works

References

  1. ^ a b c Platts, U. (1980). Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists: A Guide & Handbook. Christchurch, New Zealand: Avon Fine Prints. p. 39.
  2. ^ a b c d "Beetham, Richmond, 1836-1912". National Library of New Zealand. n.d. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d The Cyclopedia of New Zealand. Vol. 3. Christchurch, New Zealand: The Cyclopedia Company, Ltd. 1903. p. 243.
  4. ^ "Beetham, Richmond 1836-1912 :The Roman Catholic Mission, Apia, Samoa [1882?]". National Library of New Zealand. n.d. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  5. ^ Official Record of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition; held at Dunedin, 1889–90 (PDF). Wellington, New Zealand: George Didsbury, Government Printer. 1891. p. 259.