About George Beck
George Beck (1749 – December 24, 1812) was an English-born landscape painter and poet who produced numerous works in America during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He is best remembered for his paintings The Potomac River Breaking through the Blue Ridge and Great Falls of the Potomac, which were purchased by George Washington and can still be found at Mount Vernon today.Beck also wrote short poems, made poetic translations from Anacreon, Homer, Virgil, and Horace, and in 1812 published Observations on the Comet. In 1795, he served as a scout in General Anthony Wayne's campaign against the Native Americans. With his wife, Bethany Marcus who was also an artist, Beck conducted a female seminary in Lexington, Kentucky for many years. He died in Lexington on December 24, 1812.
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