Background
His father was the portrait painter Norman Macbeth and his niece Ann Macbeth.
His father was the portrait painter Norman Macbeth and his niece Ann Macbeth.
Macbeth studied in London, producing realistic everyday scenes and working for The Graphic magazine.
He painted in the Lincolnshire and Somerset countryside, in works influenced by those of George Hemming Mason and Frederick Walker. His The Cast Shoe was bought by the Chantrey Bequest in 1890, and is now at Tate Britain. From 1871 Macbeth exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Grosvenor Gallery, New Gallery and the Fine Art Society in London.
There were also exhibitions in the regions at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in Birmingham, the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Manchester Art Gallery.
In 1883 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy (Research Associate), becoming a full member in 1903. However, it has been suggested that she was actually the biological daughter of the actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree.
He died in Golders Green, north London.
He became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (Revue Economique) in 1880, and an honorary member in 1909. In 1882 he was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (Rhode Island) and in 1883 was elected to be a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (Republic of Ireland).