William Beale

1 portrait of William Beale

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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William Beale

by Charles John Robertson
watercolour on ivory, 1815
5 1/4 in. x 3 7/8 in. (133 mm x 98 mm)
Purchased, 1979
Primary Collection
NPG 5265

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Rogers, Malcolm, Master Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, 1993 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 August to 23 October 1994), p. 101
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 41
  • Walker, Richard, Miniatures: 300 Years of the English Miniature, 1998, p. 109 Read entry

    William Beale is here shown seated at an organ, possibly in Westminster Abbey; he lived nearby, in North Street, for many years. He was an accomplished organist, but better known today for his glees and madrigals, especially 'Awake, sweet Muse'. Charles Robertson exhibited miniatures in London from 1798 to 1830, including a 'Mr Beall' in 1816 at the Royal Academy. He favoured the large rectangular shape also used by his more famous Scottish namesake, Andrew Robertson (1777-1845).

  • Walker, Richard, Regency Portraits, 1985, p. 29

Events of 1815back to top

Current affairs

John and James Leigh Hunt are released from prison after a two year sentence for slandering the Prince of Wales in their outspoken, radical periodical the Examiner.
Corn Laws are introduced to protect against the collapse in prices which would inevitably follow peace with France, prompting riots in London.

Art and science

Humphry Davy invents the miners' safety lamp though its reception is clouded by William Clanny and George Stephenson who present rival models in the same year.
British Institution arranges first in innovative series of Old Master exhibitions
provoking virulent attack on its patrons for neglecting contemporary art.

International

Napoleon returns to France from exile in Elba and resumes power until his abdication on 22 June; a period known as the 'Hundred Days'.
Battle of Waterloo concludes the Anglo-French struggle that had lasted more than a century. Peace of Vienna establishes Britain's global political, economic and imperial dominance which lasts for the next hundred years.

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