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Beich, Franz Joachim
(b Ravensburg, 15 Oct 1665; d Munich, 16 Oct 1748). German painter. He was the son of a cartographer and painter, Daniel Beich ( fl 1624–70), with whom he probably trained. His first recorded work, View of Mountains at Evening (1694; Nuremberg, Ger. Nmus.) marked him out as an independent artist. Beich received his first major commission through Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria: two battle scenes, painted between 1702 and 1704, for his newly built castle at Schleissheim. They won Beich the title of court painter. In 1704–15 he worked in Italy—initially in Rome, where landscape painting was dominated by foreigners such as Jan Frans van Bloemen, Christoph Ludwig Agricola and Franz Werner von Tamm, a circle he joined. Moving to Livorno, Beich was equally successful, with a reputation that made him sought after as a teacher. In Naples even Francesco Solimena admired him, and Bernardo de Dominici’s praise of his naturalism in the Vite de Pittori of 1743 testifies to his impact. Returning to Munich in 1715, Beich painted further commissions for the Bavarian court, including a series of views of the ruler’s summer residences for Schloss Nymphenberg, and more battle scenes for Schleissheim. After 1726 he had a wealth of commissions from the aristocracy, the haute bourgeoisie and also the South German monasteries.
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