Alice D. Engley Beek

American watercolorist, writer and lecturer
Anthony Beek
​
(m. 1899)​
Awards

Alice D. Engley Beek (1876–1951) was an American watercolorist of the Pacific Northwest,[1] whose paintings had a wide vogue.[2] She was also a writer and lecturer on art subjects;[3] her lectures before various organizations were an inspiration to many persons.[2]

Early life and education

Alice Dow Engley was born in Providence, Rhode Island on June 17, 1876.[4][5] Her father, Major James C. Engley, was a military adviser to President Abraham Lincoln;[6] her mother was Mary Elizabeth (Dow) Engley.[3][5]

She began her education at Miss Ida M. Gardner's School for Girls, Providence. In the U.S., she studied art at the Wheeler Art School, at Rhode Island School of Design,[7] and with Sydney Richmond Burleigh, Providence. She studied at two French academies including Académie Delécluse and Lazar, Paris. In Paris, she studied with Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Léon Lhermitte, Tony Robert-Fleury, and Edward Frederick Ertz, while in Holland, she studied with Jozef Israëls.[3][4][5]

Career

Beek spent six years in Paris and eight years in Holland.[3][5] She painted approximately eighty landscapes of New England and approximately two hundred more while in Europe.[6]

From 1897, she served on the Memorial International Jury and Commission of Honor, Paris.[3][5]

Beek was the leading member of the Tacoma Art League in point of brilliancy of work.[2] She was also a member of the Fine Arts Association and the American Federation of Arts (Washington, D.C.).[3][5]

Personal life

She married Anthony Beek, of Kampen, Overijssel, Netherlands, on September 28, 1899. They had one son, Frederic Dow Beek.[3][5]

In politics, she was a Republican. In religion, she was a Congregationalist.[3][5]

Early in the 20th-century, she came to Tacoma, Washington, where she died on January 27, 1951.[1][6]

Expositions

Awards and honors

  • Cross of Honor, gold medal, and silver medal, International Exhibition, Paris, 1896[3][4][5]
  • Grand Prix, Cross of Honor, and gold medal, International Exhibition, Paris, 1897, her work (watercolor) being designed as "above competition" at subsequent exhibitions[3][4][5]
  • Grand Prize and gold medal, Seattle Exposition, 1909[3][4][5]

References

  1. ^ a b "Long Illness Fatal to Northwest Artist. Tacoma, Jan. 26. Alice D. Engley Beek". The Spokesman-Review. 27 January 1951. p. 13en. Retrieved 26 August 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b c Hunt, Herbert (1916). Tacoma: Its History and Its Builders; a Half Century of Activity. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. p. 234. Retrieved 26 August 2024. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Binheim, Max; Elvin, Charles A. (1928). Women of the West: A Series of Biographical Sketches of Living Eminent Women in the Eleven Western States of the United States of America. Publishers Press. p. 217. Retrieved 26 August 2024 – via Wikisource. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ a b c d e American Art Annual. Vol. 14. MacMillan Company. 1918. p. 424. Retrieved 26 August 2024. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Leonard, John W.; Marquis, Albert Nelson (1928). Who's who in America. Marquis Who's Who. Retrieved 26 August 2024. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. ^ a b c "Alice D. Engley Beek". The News Tribune. 27 January 1951. p. 12. Retrieved 26 August 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Antique watercolor w/c painting of a wetlands landscape listed Washington artist – #457231879". Worthpoint. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
  8. ^ Trask, John Ellingwood Donnell; Laurvik, John Nilsen (1915). Panama-Pacific International Exposition – Dept of Fine Arts (ed.). Catalogue de luxe of the Department of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition. San Francisco: P. Elder and Company. p. 288 – via Internet Archive. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.