Featured Print of a painting by a serial killer?!

Hi guys, bit of an odd one this. I bought this oleograph a couple of years ago assuming it was a print from a very old painting by a very good painter. But i have never managed to identify the signature or even find another example of the image until today when I found it in an auction.
But the oil painting sold in auction was by a serial killer who murdered his own family and wife and painted the picture while in prison... in 1975?!

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/...0051/lot-1a188a80-e11f-4b53-9189-a6fb0134c6a6

"Macabre Art; oil painting on canvas 49 x 37cm, depicting a boy and a girl holding a dead bird, painted by PAUL BEECHAM during his incarceration in Broadmoor Hospital, signed & dated 1975, together with three other paintings by the same hand. (Paul Beecham who killed his Mother, Father & Grandparents was sent to Broadmoor in 1969 and released in 1995, he then went on to kill his wife, her body found buried under the patio, Beecham committed suicide)"



This all seems odd because this oleograph seems to be very old, the mount is browned and snaps it's so fragile... and to my eye the quality even of the oleglograph seems higher than the "original" (unless it' just a bad photo... god knows my photos don't do my copy justice either!
But the other thing is my ones signature seems to be very different, I can't read it can you?
So I just wondered if anyone could hazard a guess as to what's going on.
If this is a print from this killer's work, why's it seemingly much older than 1975? And why the different signature.
If it's not then who is it by? And did this killer simply paint a copy of it in prison?
Any thoughts of ideas appreciated!

Thanks

James

 

I think the original is a painting by Agnes Gardner King. Maybe the killer copied it.

https://agnesgardnerking.wordpress.com/

 

And this is why I love this forum! I'e searched so long and hard, did you get that just from the signature or something?

https://agnesgardnerking.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/poorlittledick.pdf

So that's it, it has the title "poor little dick" on my picture and I still couldn't find anything about it!

Could this be the actual colour plate described in the above link then??

Ps I'm so glad I don't have a print of a 1975 piece by that sicko!

 

I did a google image search on the killers painting and one of the listing that came up was the King information. Once I knew her name I just checked the sig on yours and voila

 

There are a couple prints of the same children that some say are by Frederick Morgan but I can't tell you why.

 

When I look at the original I see two grieving children sad about the loss of their canary but somehow I suspect the serial killer saw two children that had just snapped their pet bird's neck.

 

Exactly my thoughts, I loved this picture since I got it but reading what I found earlier made me feel sick and I was already contemplating getting rid of it... I'm so glad I posted here now, thank you say it slowly for the info!

Anyone know what the Christmas supplement mentioned on the link might have been? Surely they wouldn' have mass produced 1000's of these like a newspaper, the quality is incredibly good, hence I wondered if it could be an original plate like it mentions?

 

It was a weekly summary of St James's Gazette.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_James's_Gazette

The ad says "2 Magnificent Coloured Plates", and it was the Christmas issue, so I think, yes, the number of prints was limited to the run of the supplement... available "at all Newsagents and at the Railway Bookstalls".

How many that would be, I don't know. It was apparently a literary publication with not an overly large circulation. A special Christmas number with extra special illustrations might have been expected to sell more than usual.

The Victorian illustrated papers could be fairly extravagant in the images they published.

 

I once had this from The Graphic: An Illustrated Weekly Magazine, c1880s by Frank Dicksee

 

This picture, by Alonzo Kimball, started off as a 1916 Ladies Home Journal ad for Woodbury’s Soap, but for 10 cents in stamps or coins you could get this full-sized print (original 19” by 15”) and a sample bar of the soap.


So that kind of thing happened as well.

 

Fascinating stuff guys thank you! Seems it was quality over quantity in those days, shame there's no real value to these things these days it seems, you wonder how many copies of them are still in existence though!

 

Can't seem to leave this alone.

Just wanted to add that just because the painting was reproduced as a print in that magazine, it doesn't necessarily mean that's where your print came from. It might have been reproduced elsewhere as well.

I wonder if this is the other image from that same issue (the description says London 1880):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221765947519?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&fromMakeTrack=true

(There was an 18th C mezzotint done by William Dickinson, but just try to find the Joshua Reynolds painting!)

 

This really is the most likely answer. I very much doubt someone who was criminally insane would have come up with this tender image.

 

I know that this was a while ago, but I only just came across this post, while searching for further information about Paul Beecham. He was indeed a very good painter, & made a lot of copies of old works while inside Broadmoor, while in prison for the murder of his parents & grandparents. Or so it says in the book 'Talking with Psychopaths', by Christopher Berry-See. Christopher (a highly respected Criminologist) interviewed Beecham & it seems had many further conversations with him as they shared an interest in oil painting. So if you still have it, it's highly possible he did paint this as apparently his work was exceptional. Unfortunately after his release he slowly lost his mind again, became paranoid & delusional, & 12 years after his release ended up hitting his wife (who he'd met while in prison, & who had campaigned for his release) on the head with a spade, burying her under the patio, then shooting himself in the head while in bed a few days later.

 

Ya learn the darnedest things here.

 

Hi, just found this as I was discussing the paintings I had stashed in the loft with my partner. I have a triple picture group of the Japanese junks in oil. My grandfather was an officer in Broadmoor whilst Paul beecham was incaserated there and was given several pictures that Paul had produced.
There is a large main picture and two smaller pictures. They've been kept in the dark on my mezzanine at work.
Would these have a value or does the back story, which is aweful, make the sale of them impossible and become bin fodder. I do like the pictures and I was given them by my grandfather who's now passed. When I explain the story people tell me I shouldn't put them on the wall.
Thoughts welcome.