Life and Work
Named after the famous painter, Beck was the oldest of the eight children of J. Augustus Beck, an accomplished artist who designed the bas relief at the foot of the Washington Monument. When Beck was 20, after studying with his father, he traveled to Europe for two years to study in Munich with the famous landscape artist, Paul Weber, and then at the Académie Julian in Paris.
After his return to the States, Beck began his first major commissioned work, a series of murals for the capitol building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Around this time he also settled in Lockport, New York and established a studio in Buffalo.
Beck produced a wide variety of artworks including stain glass windows, life size masks, etchings, oils, watercolors, and large murals, including mural of the opening of the Erie Canal and a portrait of General Lafayette among others.
Beck maintained his studio in Buffalo for thirty years. He went on to design the logo for the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon. Beck died in 1947 and is buried at the Lockport Glenwood Cemetery.
Read more about this topic: Raphael Beck
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