Novelist, art collector, travel writer and politician.
William Thomas Beckford
1760 - 1844
This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.
Biographical notes
Summary of activity
William Beckford came from a family which had made their fortunes from plantations in Jamaica and elsewhere, all of them worked by enslaved people. His great-grandfather, Peter Beckford (1673–1735), travelled out to Jamaica in 1661, where he bought the first plantation. His father, Alderman William Beckford married Maria Hamilton, a member of the family of the Dukes of Hamilton, and widow of Francis Marsh, a Jamaican planter.
Aged 10, Beckford inherited his fortune from his father, including the extensive sugar plantations in Jamaica. He was described by Lord Byron as ‘England’s wealthiest son’ (Lord Byron, ‘There thou too, Vathek! England’s wealthiest son, Once form’d thy paradise…‘ Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto I, xxii, 1812). In 1777 he went to live in Geneva with his uncle Colonel Hamilton, a former soldier of the East India Company army. In 1783 he married Lady Margaret Gordon, a daughter of the fourth Earl of Aboyne. He was Member of Parliament for Wells from 1784–90, and for Hindon (a seat inherited from his father) from 1790-4 and 1806-20. Beckford, who was against the abolition of the slave trade, commented on the issue in 1796.
He was an absentee owner but used the wealth generated by his estates to amass a large collection of art and books. Beckford spent much money building Fonthill Abbey, designed by James Wyatt, and completed in 1807, whose tower famously collapsed in 1825. His extravagances and financial mismanagement contributed to a depletion in his fortune.
In 1822 Beckford sold both Fonthill and some of his collection to John Farquar, who auctioned them in 1823 at ’The Fonthill Sale'. The remainder of his collection was inherited by the Dukes of Hamilton and sold at the Hamilton Palace sale of 1882. The Gallery bought directly from Beckford, notably in 1839, Raphael, Saint Catherine of Alexandria (NG168), and in 1844, Bellini, The Doge Leonardo Loredan (NG189). In 1882 Velázquez, Philip IV of Spain in Brown and Silver (NG1129) was bought from the Hamilton Sale. The following paintings were also at one time in Beckford’s collection: Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, Saint Jerome in a Landscape (NG1120) (bought from the Hamilton Sale); Jacopo di Cione, The Crucifixion (NG1468); Gerrit Dou, A Poulterer’s Shop (NG825); Gaspard Dughet, Landscape with Elijah and the Angel (NG1159); After Adam Elsheimer, Tobias and the Archangel Raphael returning with the Fish (NG1424); Garofalo, The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth, Zacharias, John the Baptist (and Francis?) (NG170); Bartholomeus van der Helst, Portrait of a Girl in Pale Blue with an Ostrich Feather Fan (NG1248); Nicolas Lancret, The Four Ages of Man: Childhood, Adolescence, Youth and Old Age (NG101–104); Filippino Lippi, The Adoration of the Kings (NG1124) (bought from the Hamilton Sale); Frans van Mieris the Elder, A Woman in a Red Jacket feeding a Parrot (NG840); Nicolas de Neufchâtel, Susanna Stefan, Wife of Wolfgang Furter (NG184); Associate of Pietro Perugino, The Virgin and Child with Saint John (NG181); Hendrick van Steenwyck the Younger, A Man kneels before a Woman in the Courtyard of a Renaissance Palace (NG141); Emanuel de Witte, The Interior of the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, during a Sermon (NG1053).
Slavery connections
Inherited his fortune from his father, Alderman William Beckford, which included sugar plantations in Jamaica.
Abolition connections
No known connections with abolition.
National Gallery painting connections
Former owner: NG purchased from Beckford in 1839, 1840 and 1844: NG168–70, NG181 and NG189, respectively.
Former owner: Beckford once owned NG101–104, NG141, NG184, NG641, NG726, NG783, NG825, NG840, NG1053, NG1120, NG1124, NG1129, NG1159, NG1248, NG1424, NG1468, NG2205.
Bibliography
A. McConnell, 'Beckford, William Thomas', in C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/1905
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L. Namier, 'BECKFORD, William (1760-1844), of Fonthill, Wilts.', in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, 1754-1790, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/beckford-william-1760-1844
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M. H. Port and R. G. Thorne, 'BECKFORD, William (1760-1844), of Fonthill, nr. Hindon, Wilts.', in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, 1790-1820, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/beckford-william-1760-1844
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D. Rodgers, 'Beckford, William', in J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T007228
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UCL Department of History, 'William Thomas Beckford', in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership, London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/22232
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Paintings previously owned by William Thomas Beckford
(Showing 6 of 27 works)
This is one of the best examples of Gerrit Dou’s brilliance at depicting different surfaces and textures, like the fraying cloth crumpled underneath a bucket, the smooth stone of the sill, the feathers in the duck’s wing and the pocked skin of its breast and neck.Dou was one of the most successfu...
Not on display
Willem van Mieris belonged to a group of Dutch artists based in Leiden who are known as the Fijnschilders (‘fine painters’) because of their attention to accurate, realistic detail and their smooth technique. They aimed to show each object, each texture so authentically that they would seem tangi...
Not on display
This woman is most likely Sophonisba, an ill-fated but brave Carthaginian princess; she drains a glass of poison. In 206 BC Massinia allied with the Roman general Scipio to defeat the western Numidians, ruled by Sophonisba’s first husband, Syphax. Massinia fell in love with Sophonisba, but could...
A young woman sits, one delicate hand outstretched and holding an almond to feed to a parrot. On one finger she has a thimble – she has stopped sewing to feed the bird, an African Grey that hunches over, assessing her gift with a beady eye. The model used for the young woman is thought to be Cune...
Not on display
The Scribes and Pharisees (experts in religious law) brought to Christ a young woman caught having sex outside marriage (John 8: 1–11). They asked him whether she should be stoned to death in accordance with the laws of Moses. Jesus, seeming not to hear them, stooped down and wrote on the ground....
Not on display
Leonardo Loredan knows that he is being looked at, but he does not return our gaze. He is the doge, the ruler of the Venetian Republic; elected in 1501, he ruled until his death in 1521.He wears white silk damask robes woven with gold and silver metal thread, clothing reserved for the most splend...
Imitator of Hendrick van Steenwyck the Younger
It is night-time, and we are looking into the dimly lit apse of a Catholic church. An elaborate metal baptismal font stands on red marble steps in the foreground; the column next to it is a font crane, which supports the font cover. There are still several visitors in the church and the side chap...
Not on display
The Bible describes how a winged angel appeared to Elijah while he was in the wilderness. He had been banished from Israel for defending God against the worship of the pagan deity Baal.Here, the angel points towards Mount Horeb with one hand and towards Elijah with the other, encouraging him to v...
Philip IV, King of Spain, was normally shown in fairly sombre clothing, so the unusual splendour of his costume here suggests that this work was made to celebrate something particular. In 1632, he wore a similar outfit for an important ceremony in which the Cortes of Castile pledged an oath of al...
The young girl in this portrait seems a little shy and tentative. Her eyes are wide and enquiring, her eyebrows slightly raised. She holds out the fan a little awkwardly as if uncertain what to do with it. Her hand placed on her stomach almost appears to steady her.The girl’s identity is unknown,...
Not on display
Catherine of Alexandria, a fourth-century princess, was converted to Christianity and in a vision underwent a mystic marriage with Christ. When she would not give up her faith, Emperor Maxentius ordered that she be bound to a spiked wheel and tortured to death. However, a thunderbolt destroyed th...
Not on display
An old man with a long white beard kneels in a rocky landscape. He gazes up at a rough wooden cross made from two slender branches roped together. This is Jerome, a fourth-century saint. It’s one of a number of versions of the subject made by Cima da Conegliano.The painting is arranged to focus o...
Not on display
The demure young woman in this portrait is Susanna Stefan of Nuremberg. The picture may well have been painted around the time of her marriage to Wolfgang Furter, probably along with a pendant portrait of her husband. A damaged inscription gives her age as 18 and a date in the 1560s; the coats of...
Not on display
A ruinous chapel-like building stands in a rocky landscape. The Virgin Mary sits on the remains of a wall and presents the Christ Child to the Three Kings, who, together with their retinue, are gathered around her to present their gifts. The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of the Adoration of t...
Christ’s disciple Judas – visible just beyond the river, leading a group of soldiers to Christ – has betrayed him. Aware of his imminent arrest and death, Christ prays; a cherub appears and presents him with a chalice. The chalice refers to the words of his prayer: ‘My Father, if it be possible,...
In the courtyard of this vast and palatial complex of buildings, a woman stands with her young servants. The bright red of her dress and the dark blue of her attendants’ outfits are echoed in the feathers of the parrot that is perched on the pedestal to the right. Two men seemingly demonstrate th...
Not on display
This picture is unusual in Italian painting of this period in showing so much detail from the Gospel accounts of Christ’s crucifixion in one relatively small panel. Such images were usually reserved for large wall paintings. Christ is shown on the Cross between the two thieves who were crucified...
Rogier van der Weyden and workshop
We are looking at the east end of a Gothic church, where the body of a bishop is being exhumed from his tomb in front of the high altar. This is Saint Hubert, Bishop of Maastricht and Liège, who died in 727. He is being moved from Liège to the newly founded abbey of Saint-Hubert-en-Ardenne, in 82...
Not on display
This is the second of Lancret’s series of paintings depicting The Four Ages of Man and represents Adolescence (L'Adolescence).A young lady stands in the centre of the painting in a grand circular room with tall windows. She admires herself in the mirror held up by a young page while her hair is d...
Not on display
This is the first of Lancret’s series of paintings depicting The Four Ages of Man.Ten wealthy children, a baby, a nurse and a governess are outside in a tiled neoclassical loggia. Two of the children are being taught to read by the governess, while the others are playing boisterous games. A boy a...
Not on display
This is the fourth and final painting in Lancret’s series of The Four Ages of Man, entitled Old Age (La Vieillesse). Lancret dispensed with the usual depiction of old people warming themselves indoors before an open fire to take the scene outdoors. A young woman rejects an old man’s advances whil...
Not on display
This is the third of Lancret’s series of paintings depicting The Four Ages of Man and represents Youth (La Jeunesse).Three pairs of lovers embrace one another in a woodland glade. In the foreground, two archers are engaged in a game of ‘pape-guay’, which involves shooting at an imitation bird (us...
Not on display
As Saint Nicholas of Tolentino (1245–1305) contemplates the Christ Child, rays of golden light impress a sun with the face of a cherub upon his breast. Christ eats the cherries offered by Saint Joseph, symbolising the fruit of paradise. Angels watch and play music; God the Father, together with t...
Not on display
The infant Christ is shown greeting his cousin, John the Baptist, who comes bearing a goldfinch, an emblem of Christ’s suffering and death. Saint Joseph is seen behind the Virgin Mary to the right; Zacharias is behind his wife Saint Elizabeth to the left, where another saint, perhaps Francis, als...
Not on display
An atmospheric light, something characteristic of Emanuel de Witte’s many church interiors, falls on the congregation gathered in Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk to hear a sermon. De Witte started his career as a figure painter but became a master of this genre, in which architecture and the effects of lig...
Not on display
Associate of Pietro Perugino
The Virgin Mary gently supports the Christ Child as he plays with her hair. He casts a curious glance at his cousin, Saint John the Baptist, who is recognisable by the fine wooden cross tucked under his arm, a symbol of Christ’s crucifixion. The Virgin’s fair complexion and golden hair were consi...
Not on display
After Adam Elsheimer
This scene comes from the apocryphal Book of Tobit. Old and blind, Tobit had sent his son Tobias on a long journey to collect a debt on his behalf. Here, Tobias drags an enormous fish across the ground. He is watched closely by the Archangel Raphael, who had instructed the boy to catch a fish, th...
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