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American, Academic painter. His interest in art came at an early age, and at sixteen he entered the Chicago Academy of Design. Beckwith received his father's consent to pursue a career in art and moved to New York to study at the National Academy of Design. In 1873, Beckwith left for Paris, where he remained for five years, taking drawing courses at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. As an artist, he concentrated mostly on portraits, figure studies, and detailed renderings of historical monuments, but he never lost his interest in decorative design. Refusing to follow artistic fashion, he remained faithful to his conviction that art should embody the technical refinement of form, color, and expression. Throughout his career, Beckwith was committed to furthering the progress of American artists. For the remainder of his career, Beckwith worked unceasingly in his New York studio and spent four years in Italy from 1910 to 1914. He died of a heart attack at the age of sixty-six.
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