David Beck

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For the American labor leader, see Dave Beck

David Beck (or Beek) (May 25, 1621, Delft – Dec 20, 1656, The Hague) was a Dutch portrait painter.

Beck was the son of a schoolmaster in Delft, where he learned painting from Michiel van Mierevelt, a most prominent portrait painter in the Netherlands. Late in 1640 he moved to London to join Anthony van Dyck's studio as a pupil and assistant, but had little time to learn from Van Dyck himself as the latter fell ill and died in 1641. Beck possessed the freedom of hand and readiness, or rather rapidity of execution, for which Van Dyck was so remarkable, in so much that when Charles I observed the expeditious manner of Beck's painting, he exclaimed, "Faith! Beck, I believe you could paint riding post" and asked him to teach his sons drawing.

Nevertheless, Beck soon left England and travelled around the courts of Europe. In 1647, he was appointed portrait painter and chamberlain to Queen Christina of Sweden in Stockholm, and he executed portraits of most of the sovereigns of Europe to adorn her gallery. Christina sent him on tour to the European courts, apparently also for political purposes. He joined her court again in Rome in 1653, followed her to France in 1656. His death at The Hague that same year was suspected of being due to poisoning.