Sir George Howland Beaumont

Sir George Beaumont, 7th Baronet
Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence
Born	(1753-09-06)6 September 1753 Dunmow, Essex
Died	7 February 1827(1827-02-07) (aged 73) Coleorton, Leicestershire

Sir George Howland Beaumont, 7th Baronet (6 November 1753 – 7 February 1827) was a British art patron and amateur painter. He played a crucial part in the creation of London's National Gallery by making the first bequest of paintings to that institution.

Born in Great Dunmow, Essex, he was the only surviving child of the landowner Sir George Beaumont, 6th Baronet, from whom he inherited the baronetcy in 1762 (see Beaumont baronets) and Rachel [nee Howland] daughter of Michael Howland of Stone Hall, Matching Green. Beaumont was educated at Eton College, where he was taught drawing by the landscape painter Alexander Cozens.

The first paintings to enter Beaumont's collection were by artists he knew, but a Grand Tour which he undertook in 1782 with his wife Margaret (the daughter of John Willes M.P., of Astrop, Oxon and grand-daughter of Sir John Willes M.P., Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas) widened his taste to include the Old Masters. On his return he began to assemble a collection of Old Master paintings despite his relatively modest means. His first important acquisition was A Landscape with Hagar and the Angel by Claude Lorrain, and this always remained his favourite painting, accompanying him on coach journeys in a specially-designed case.

In 1785 Lady Beaumont inherited the lease of 34 Grosvenor Square, which provided the Beaumonts with a much-needed escape from the tedium of Dunmow and introduced them to a more diverse social circle. This circle expanded when Beaumont became Tory MP for Beer Alston in Devon from 1790 to 1796, but his enthusiasm for politics was short-lived and he soon returned to his artistic pursuits. A picture gallery was added to the house in 1792 to accommodate their growing art collection. Despite the cool reception by critics of an early work, A View of Keswick (1779), Beaumont became a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1794 to 1825, eventually earning a reputation as the leading amateur painter of his day.