Maria Beckett was born in Portland, ME in 1840. Primarily a watercolorist, she was the daughter of Charles E. Beckett, artist, and niece of S. B. Beckett, publisher. She was also know as Maria J. C. a’Becket or M. G. Beckett. She studied with her father, Charles, a Portland landscape and genre painter who did railroad travel books including the White Mountains. Beckett also studied with William Morris Hunt in Boston, with Homer Dodge Martin, and in Europe with Daubigny. In 1874 John Neal wrote that Charles E. Beckett “has left a daughter with some of the properties he lacked for she really is a fine colorist and her drawings and paintings are full of promise.”

She exhibited at the Boston Art Club in April 1875 and at the National Academy of Design in 1883 and 1888, during which time she lived in New York City. She exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1880 to 1884. She also exhibited at the Maine Charitable Mechanic Exhibition of 1860 and 1878 and the New York Women’s Art Club, 1890, where she was a member. The 1884 Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association Catalogue of the Department of Fine Arts, 15th Exhibition lists Sketch of Oaks ($15).

Works that are located include:

Berlin Falls, pencil; Carter Mountain, pencil; Connecticut River from Stratford, NY, pencil; The Flume, NH; Foot of Carter Mountain, oil, Boston Art Club, April 1875, #128; Mount Washington, Pencil sketches, illustrations for book by her father, Charles E. Beckett; Woodland Scene, owned by Maine Historical Society.

References
LaFreniere, Peter.  Blue Hill Bay Gallery
Maine Library Bulletin 13 (July-Oct 1927)
New Hampshire Scenery
Who Was Who in American Art