Reynolds Beal | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Reynolds Beal | |
| Born | (1866-10-12)October 12, 1866 |
| Died | December 18, 1951(1951-12-18) (aged 85) |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Impressionist Modernist |
| Relatives | Gifford Beal (brother) |
Reynolds Beal (October 11, 1866 – December 18, 1951) was an AmericanImpressionist andModernist artist.[1]
The elder brother of painterGifford Beal, Reynolds was born inNew York City. He and his brother Gifford spent their summers at Wilellyn inNewburgh, New York, on theHudson River, and together they would later design the gardens at Wilellyn. His father was William Reynolds Beal, whose brother Thaddeus owned Echo Lawn, not far away.[2] Beal was a man of independent means, and was thus able to devote his life to his art without having always to appeal to the tastes of his patrons or to contemporary trends.
Beal showed artistic ability from an early age, but temporarily postponed his creative interests to enroll at university. He first studied atCornell University (naval architecture), where he was a member of thePhi Kappa Psi fraternity and theIrving Literary Society. Beal painted and sketched in and aroundCayuga Lake. His home haunts of theEast River were the first subjects of his work; in Sibley Hall’s drafting bays he learned further technique as a budding naval architect. Although the “Sibley time” constitutes his first artistic experience, it was not until the years following graduation that Beal became serious about a painting career.
Beal spent 1901 at sea, and worked up his sketchbook entitledCruising Aboard U.S.S. School Ship St. Mary's (1901),[3] he kept scrapbook pages of marine etchings and photographs, old Christmas cards, personal photographs, exhibition catalogs, and clippings.
From 1900 to 1907, he painted almost exclusively at the artist's community inNoank, Connecticut withHenry Ward Ranger. After 1912, Beal focused more on theHudson Valley, where he painted the colorful and whimsical scenes of the traveling circuses that came through the region. His most prolific artistic period falls between the years 1910–1920.
Beal painted the beaches inProvincetown,Key West,Rockport,Atlantic City andWellfleet, circus scenes andcarnivals. He used a variety of styles including Impressionism andTonalism. As he got older, his work became more complex and vibrant. In addition to oils, he was admired as a watercolorist, and he and Gifford made Rockport, Massachusetts their home. At one time, he resided inGloucester, Massachusetts, as well. His studio overlooked Rockport's Inner Harbor, from where he drew and etched many harbor scenes.
Beal traveled widely. In November 1944, Reynolds and Gifford had a large joint exhibition at the Fitchburg Art Center (now Museum) in Fitchburg, MA, which included eighty-three oils, watercolors, and etchings that had been executed all over the world with subjects including Singapore, Trinidad, Samoa, China, Nassau, Egypt, Haiti, Cape Ann, Atlantic City, and Provincetown.
Beal was active in the art community. By 1934, he was a participant in theSalmagundi Club, Lotus Club,Century Club,National Academy of Design and theAmerican Water Color Society. He was also a member of the Society of American Engravers, theSociety of American Graphic Artists and theNational Arts Council. His progressive tenets marked him as a "modernist", and he helped found theSociety of Independent Artists and the New Society of Artists, which consisted of fifty of the most important painters of the day, includingGeorge Bellows,Childe Hassam,John Sloan,William Glackens andMaurice Prendergast.[citation needed] His work was also part of thepainting event in theart competition at the1932 Summer Olympics.[4]
Illness prevented Beal from painting in oil as spontaneously as he would have liked, and by 1940 he almost stopped painting. Reynolds Beal died inRockport, Massachusetts, in 1951.
One curator summarized his life of excellence in a note tagged to his Eddyville paintings:
Reynolds Beal helped drive American impressionism as the 20th century got underway. Like Lever and Lawson, he favored theFauvistic direction, with its strong link to the radical childlike innocence of the American land.[5]
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