William Wright Beling II

William Wright Beling (31 December 1867 – 23 June 1928) was a talented Ceylonese watercolour painter of Dutch Burgher descent.

), Dr. Christopher Charles (1873–1946) (Assistant Physician at the New Jersey State Hospital for the Insane, Clinical assistant at the Vanderbilt Clinic in New York, visiting neurologist at Newark City Hospital and St. Michael's Hospital, and from 1919–1923 a neuro-psychiatrist for the United States Veterans Bureau,[4]) Jessie Alexandra Maria (1874–1951), Antoninette 'Annie' Aileen (1876–1910) (mother of the art patron Len Van Geyzel) and Aelian Arnold (1879–1967) (father of John Kingsman Beling, Rear Admiral of the United States Navy).

Some of his earliest sketches are dated to 1891 and are mostly pen and ink studies of 'sea and sky, rocks, ships and small sailing craft'.

It is believed that this was the happiest period of his career as the kaleidoscope of the harbour and the Customs would have provided him with many a subject, resulting in some of his most fruitful years as an artist.

His pictures were typical of the man; they were not the result of painstaking and laborious effort, but little gems of poetic conception and charming colour, full of restrained beauty, thrown oil "at a heat" from his teeming brain when the mood seized him.

Growing up as he did in the midst of a family circle, nearly all the members of which were richly gifted with artistic and musical talent, W. W. B., in spite of the lack of any special art training, soon made a name for himself, which will not be easily effaced.

He loved art for its own sake, and never did a foreign Artist of any merit visit these shores, but Bill was soon on his track and comparing notes with him as with a friend and brother.

[1] Charlotte died on 18 May 1903 leaving behind two sons, William Wright III (25 July 1898) and Christopher 'Christie' Lorenz (23 September 1900), who inherited his father's artistic talent, and one daughter, Blanche Amybelle (12 March 1902).

He was an original member of the Dutch Burgher Union and was much attached to it, but we must reserve a further account of his life and labours for a future issue.

The exhibition, held from 23 to 28 October 1928, was opened by His Excellency, Sir Herbert Stanley, the Governor of Ceylon (1928–1931) 'in the presence of a large and representative gathering'.

In his opening comments Sir Herbert Stanley said that he "had seen one or two of Mr. Beling's pictures since he had been in the island, but he had not had the opportunity of seeing such a large collection, and forming the estimate of what his work was really like.

XVIIL – April 1929) records the following members of the Union as being on the Committee: Miss Grace van Dort, Dr. R. L. Spittel, Mr. A. B.

[9] Caryl Nugara, reviewing the exhibition, wrote that: In dark, phantom shades of green and browny yellow W. W. Beling gave us a "View of Dutch Canal".