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.

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.

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.

A friend of the Lake Poets, with whom he considered himself a kindred spirit, Beaumont lent out the farm of the estate to William Wordsworth and his family in the winter of 1806.

They were briefly joined there by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, but Beaumont was unable to establish the same rapport with this poet as with Wordsworth, who proved a lifelong friend.

A staunch defender of the academic ethos of Sir Joshua Reynolds, he was one of J. M. W. Turner's most vehement critics, regularly denouncing his handling of colour.

Upon his return Beaumont offered to give of 16 his paintings to Lord Liverpool's government on the condition that they buy the collection of John Julius Angerstein, and that a suitable building be found to house these works of art.