James Carroll Beckwith

But it is the death of yet another painter that has recently touched so many of us here with the pathos of life and sadness for the loss of an old friend. James Carroll Beckwith was a cheerful and picturesque feature of our artist society in New York, even as he had been in happy student days in Paris, before Time brought fame with grey hairs to those many talented and proper painter friends of ours whose company still gladdens us. The artist life of our metropolis, as we know it at The Century, has shed, with its brown locks, the aroma of Bohemia.

Beckwith had mastered the elements of drawing before he sailed for Paris in 1873, to pass five years in the atelier of Carolus-Duran, in Yvon’s class at the Beaux Arts, and in the Bonnât school. His quick faculties assured his admission, and made him a favorite with those masters, with Carolus especially, whose manner and, one may say, talents Beckwith made his own. He had a studio with John S. Sargent, and the two worked neck and neck as assistants of their master Carolus, helping in the ground work and detail of his compositions. Beckwith was a skillful draughtsman and facile painter when he returned to New York in 1878, and opened his famous drawing class at the Art Students League. He soon made himself known by his pictures shown at the National Academy (of which he was made a member in 1894) and the Society of American Artists. Most noteworthy was his work on portraiture, which more than once won favorable mention and medals at exhibitions. In 1910 he and Mrs. Beckwith bade good-bye to their friends, and left New York for Rome; but later returned and again made their home in this city and at Onteora, and again took up their old strong friendships. A good friend to his friends was Carroll Beckwith.

Henry Osborn Taylor
1918 Century Association Yearbook