Fine quality early 19th century portrait of William Perryn of Langton by Sir William Beechey R.A (1753-1839).The dashing grey haired sitter is depicted half -length within an extensive landscape. He wears the traditional costume of affluent gentleman of the period, namely a dark double breasted velvet jacket over a white shirt and extravagant bowed stock. Behind him fields, trees and a river. extend into the distance, where the steeple of a church can also be glimpsed.Sir William Beechey R. A (1753-1839) Beechey was born in Burford, Oxfordshire. After his father’s death (1789) he was raised by his uncle and initially apprenticed to a firm of solicitors. In 1772 he moved to London to enter the Royal Academy Schools. He soon married and his children include painter and explorer Henry William. From c.1782 he worked in Norwich, returning to London in 1787. Beechey was a widow by 1793, when he married miniature painter Anne ...