BECKWITH, James Csrroll, American portrait painter : b. Hannibal, Mo., 23 Sept. 1852; d. 24 Oct. 1917. He studied painting in Chicago, where his father was a merchant. In the late autumn of 1871 he became a student at the Academy of Design in New York, where he remained, under the direction of Professor Wilmarth, until 1873, when he sailed for Europe and became a pupil of Carolus-Duran, and also at the Bcole des Beaux Arts, under Yvon. In 1878 he returned to New York, and with Wil liam M. Chase opened the new departments of painting and drawing at the recently established Art Students' League, where, for 18 years, he continued his work as instructor. In 1894 he was elected to the National Academy of De sign, and is a member of the National Institute of Art and Letters. Portrait and genre paint ing gradually absorbed his time and attention, the result of which was that he finally aban doned teaching. He decorated one of the
domes of the Manufactures Building at the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Among his best-known portraits are those of General Schofield, Judge Palmer, Colonel Appleton, Mark Twain, and the Ogden and Parish f am ilies. At the Saint Louis Exposition (1904) he. exhibited 'The Nautilus' and portraits of Mrs. Beckwith and F. H. Hitch. His portraits hang in many private homes as well as in gal leries and institutions throughout the United States; among others, Yale University, Johns Hopkins, West Point Military Academy, the Historical Societies of Massachusetts and New York, the Bar Association of New York, the Union, Union League, City, Racquet and Calu met Clubs of New York. The New York Public Library has a fine collection of his crayon and pencil drawings.