卡罗尔威思，他宁愿被称为出生在密苏里州汉尼拔于1852年9月23日，查尔斯和Melissa威思的儿子。不过，他长大芝加哥，他的父亲开始了批发的食品杂货店。1868年16岁的他学习艺术在设计的芝加哥学院在沃尔特Shirlaw，直到1871年的大火摧毁了一切（包括许多城市的心脏）。随后，他来到纽约，就读于设计的美国国家科学院（他后来成为一名成员）在纽约市下雷米尔Wilmarth后来走遍到巴黎，从1873年11月呆在那里，直到1878年。

在巴黎，他带着画课程，阿道夫·伊冯·和下学画卡罗勒斯·杜兰谁在1877年选择了贝克卫斯和约翰·萨金特，以帮助他的一幅壁画卢森堡宫。返回到美国合众国在1878年，他逐渐成为美国艺术的著名人物。他作为一个制图员的人才保证他在一个教授纽约艺术学生联盟，在那里他教1878年至1882年，并从1886年到1887年作为一个艺术家，他主要集中在肖像，人物研究，及详细的效果图历史古迹，但他从未失去他在装饰设计的兴趣。他1887年6月1日结婚伯莎厅，和他的朋友约翰·萨金特给了他们一个威尼斯水彩画作为礼物。

贝克卫斯积极参加在美术协会的形成，是全国免费艺术联盟主席，而试图争取到了美国关税废除艺术作品。在他的肖像画是那些威廉·蔡斯（1882年），约旦小姐（1883年），马克·吐温，西奥多·罗斯福，托马斯Allibone维耶，约翰·斯科菲尔德和威廉·M·沃尔顿。他任教于纽约艺术学生联盟 -在紫奥克利是他的学生之一。

贝克卫斯收到了许多奖项，包括在一个荣誉奖巴黎博览会的1889年和金牌在亚特兰大博览会在1895年他还于1899年在世界博览会获了奖在巴黎恐怕是他最著名的作品，他1886年肖像的威廉·沃尔顿先生。他在获得了一枚金牌查尔斯顿博览会于1902年，并在展出圣 圣路易斯世界博览会于1904年显示出与他的妻子的肖像以及他的绘画“鹦鹉螺”。卡罗尔回到巴黎在1893年绘制了一些壁画，然后返回美国画壁画上的文科大楼圆顶的一个世界哥伦布博览会在芝加哥后来在1893年。他住在意大利1910至1914年，并画了许多EN plein空气古迹，建筑和景观的研究。

詹姆斯·卡罗尔威思死于的心脏发作在他的公寓在酒店斯凯勒西第四十五街纽约市于1917年10月24日65岁已经采取了一辆出租车乘坐出租车与他的妻子后，中央公园。

他的论文，包括他的速写本和日记，他从1871年一直保持，直到他1917年去世由持有设计的美国国家科学院在纽约市。
 

Carroll Beckwith, as he preferred to be known, was born in Hannibal, Missouri on September 23, 1852, the son of Charles and Melissa Beckwith. However, he grew up in Chicago where his father started a wholesale grocery business. In 1868 aged 16 he studied art at the Chicago Academy of Design under Walter Shirlaw until the great fire of 1871 destroyed everything (including much of the heart of the city). He then went to New York and studied at the National Academy of Design(of which he afterwards became a member) in New York City under Lemuel Wilmarth and later traveled on to Paris, staying there from November 1873 until 1878.

In Paris he took drawing courses with Adolphe Yvonand studied painting under Carolus Duranwho in 1877 selected Beckwith and John Singer Sargent to help him with a mural for the Palais du Luxembourg. Returning to the United States in 1878, he gradually became a prominent figure in American art. His talents as a draftsman secured him a professorship at the Art Students League of New York, where he taught from 1878 to 1882 and from 1886 to 1887.As an artist, he concentrated mostly on portraits, figure studies, and detailed renderings of historical monuments, but he never lost his interest in decorative design. He married Bertha Hall on June 1, 1887, and his friend John Singer Sargent gave them a Venetian watercolor as a present.

Beckwith took an active part in the formation of The Fine Arts Society, and was President of the National Free Art League, which attempted to secure the repeal of the American duty on works of art. Among his portraits are those of William Merritt Chase (1882), Miss Jordan (1883), Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt,Thomas Allibone Janvier, John Schofield and William M. Walton. He taught at the Art Students League of New York - where Violet Oakley was one of his students.

Beckwith received many awards including an Honorable Mention at the Paris Exposition of 1889 and a Gold Medal at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895. He also won an award at the Exposition Universelle at Paris in 1899 for what is probably his most celebrated work, his 1886 portrait of William M. Walton. He won a gold medal at theCharleston Exposition in 1902 and exhibited at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 showing his painting "The Nautilus" along with a portrait of his wife. Carroll returned to Paris in 1893 to paint a number of murals and then returned to the United States to paint murals on one of the domes in the Liberal Arts Building at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago later in 1893.He lived in Italy from 1910 to 1914 and painted many en plein air studies of monuments, buildings, and landscapes.

James Carroll Beckwith died of a heart attack in his apartment at the Hotel Schuyler on West Forty-fifth Street in New York City on October 24, 1917 aged 65 after having taken a taxi cab ride with his wife in Central Park.

His papers, including his sketchbooks and the diaries he kept from 1871 until his death in 1917 are held by the National Academy of Design in New York City.