DE BEERSKI, Count John
John De Beerski, a Russian nobleman and the former owner of an estate near Moscow, who on the accession of the emperor Nicholas, was obliged to leave Russia on account of his liberal views, being ruined by his exile. Having a taste for drawing, John took to miniature painting and in 1849 was 'a miniature painter to the Courts of Holland and Nassau' advertising his works from Bazaar, St Andrew's Street, Norwich in 1849 'a short stay in the City' but was advertising in 1850 from Bury St Edmund's in Suffolk 'where he was residing for the past two years' his miniatures of well-known personalities of Bury and its neighborhood. In 1851 his 35 year old wife Caroline, who was born in Devon, 'wife of J De Beerski, artist portrait painter' was living at 10 Crown Street, Bury St Edmund's with her children, John 13 and George 10, both born at Liege, Belgium, Sophie 8 born at The Hague, Holland and Henry Frederick Boyle 3, born at Woolwich, Kent, at the time her husband was travelling in Paris and in Brussels, but he seems to had been in debt when, on 30 June 1851 he sold up in Bury St Edmund's. De Beerski was also an early photographer and in November 1854 held a cosmorama 'Views of St Petersburgh' at the Royal Panoptican, Leicester Square, London and by 1861, his wife Caroline, now a photographic artist, was living at 125 Regent Street, St James Westminster, London with children Charles 21, born Liege and Sophie, both photographic artists. Some of De Beerski's paintings were exhibited in Paris in 1851 for which he obtained first-class honours. In December 1863, he was advertising his work from 'Mr De Beerski's Studio, Victoria Road, Aldershot'. His paintings represent Dutch peasants regaling and amusing themselves, and the interiors of Dutch cottages but he treated those subjects with a humorous delineation of character. He emigrated to America, and he was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in 1868 and his death at Rochester, New York, U.S.A., was announced in the 'New York Times' of 2 January 1869.
Works by This Artist
|
H. R. H. The Duke of CambridgeOriginal steel engraving, engraved after a photograph by J. de Beerski. Hand-coloured
|