BEECHEY, SIR WILLIAM English por trait-painter, was born at Burford on Dec. 12 1753, and died on Jan. 28 1839. He became a pupil at the Royal Academy in 1772. Some of his smaller portraits gained him considerable reputation, and in 1793 he was made portrait-painter to Queen Charlotte. He painted the portraits of the members of the royal family, and of nearly all the most famous or fashionable persons of the time, some of which are in the National Gallery and at Hampton Court. A fine example, "The Brother and Sister," is in the Louvre. His picture, now in Kensington Palace, of a review of cavalry in Hyde Park, earned him a knighthood in 1798. In the foreground of this painting he introduced portraits of George III., the prince of Wales, and the duke of York, surrounded by a brilliant staff on horseback.