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About Reynolds Beal
Possibly the most significant and constant common denominator in the work of Reynolds Beal is the conveyance of a sense of movement, be it a swift breeze pushing a sailboat, the implication of changing atmosphere, the activity of figures, or even in his technical virtuosity, the nervous swirling brushwork used to describe alternating forms in pictorial space. In all of these ways, the artist relates a strange, albeit homogeneous sense of evanescent motion. In Beal’s denial of the static to grasp the fleeting, his pre-World War I impressionism mirrored the tenets of his French predecessors, who diffused form and deprived it of
its original weight and stability. In René Huyghe’s words, "the Fluid supplanted the Solid." Thus, in art, Beal demonstrated quite a different image from the "rather reticent and retiring" personality he presented as a man.
Alonzo Reynolds Beal was born in the fall of 1866.3 As a youth, he attended the Misses Sterling’s Select School for Boys and Girls and then public school. One extant sketchbook of copywork done during Reynolds’s youth, reveals the talent of a
prodigy. At the age of ten, he, or an interested biographer, inscribed on the inside page of one of his notebooks that he was "studying drawing with [Valois] who was drawing in Public Schools in 23rd Ward, N.Y." Two years later, in 1879, Beal’s drawings of cubes, cylinders, furniture, fruit and other objects indicate a more disciplined hand and a more formal academic manner. After finishing elementary school, he was enrolled in Chauncey Hall School, a private institution in Boston organized by *Abbott Thayer’s grandfather and attended by young Thayer a decade earlier.
Apparently, Reynolds had never been a very healthy boy, so his father encouraged his art talent rather than a career in business because he thought that the artist’s profession would be less strenuous. However, Reynolds’s interest gravitated toward naval design and engineering, probably as a compromise for his concerned father. After three years of Chauncey Hall School, young Reynolds embarked upon a curriculum of naval architecture at Cornell University. From all indications, Beal did not graduate from Cornell and his study was over by late 1889 or the following spring.
Beal continued with his art as an avocation, and in the spring of 1891, he took what was probably the first of several art study trips. He came to Chicago in April to sketch one of the areas in the proposed location for the forthcoming *World’s Columbian Exposition. He also drew from casts at the *Art Institute of Chicago, although this was probably independent study. Later that summer of 1891, Beal took a cruise to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland; he sketched with Arthur Elson of Boston in the Baddeck area and made drawings of the local Indian festivities. In addition, Beal took photographs for future reference and he made detailed notes concerning technique. Under the category of "Fog Effect," he wrote: "For studies of waves and shore scenes use greenish yellow paper the local color of which is left for the light parts of the water..."
Upon his return to New York in October, Beal enrolled in the *Art Students League, where he studied in the Antique class under *John H. Twachtman. Twachtman did not particularly enjoy teaching the class nor did Beal look forward to it, and he stayed only a short time. During the early months of 1892, Beal made notes on an exhibition of paintings in New York galleries. French impressionism had made a strong impact on American painters over the previous decade, and Beal’s careful analysis of works by proselytes made him acutely aware of its salient features. Only a few months later, in the summer of 1892, Beal became a student of *William Merritt Chase in the latter’s summer school, which was in its second year of existence at the *Shinnecock Hills on Long Island. Beal not only worked diligently to learn Chase’s technique of landscape painting, but also took many notes on it for future reference. He was told to "keep in mind at least three different notes of color which, properly placed on the canvas, will serve as key notes." Reminding Beal to "let the edges lose themselves," Chase also recommended that he "try to do a sketching in one sitting," so as to "get a better impression." Frequently Chase told his students to treat their subject more suggestively and, in the vein of impressionism, to "open your color more, make it vibrate."
In 1895 Beal was in Etaples in Northern France and remained there until late fall, occasionally visiting Boulogne. Inscribed color notes indicate his determination to use a *high-keyed palette; on one sketch, he noted his intentions for a "Monet treatment . . . atmospheric." In January of 1896, Beal’s Morning Sunlight was shown by the *Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in their Champ de Mars Salon in Paris. In Madrid, he admired the work of *Velázquez. Beal also visited Toledo, Cordova, and Seville in Spain, and Tangier in North Africa. In the spring of 1896, he returned to New Rochelle, New York, where he purchased a yawl known as "Sharpie."
Beal had no difficulty in dividing his interests between art and sailing — as an independently wealthy man and "a charming, slightly eccentric loner most of his life," he found it unnecessary to sell his paintings to live. He enjoyed his painter-sailor life and traveled almost obsessively with friends (artists and others) in search of appropriate subjects for his painting. In the spring of 1897 he sketched out of doors in Larchmont, New York, while maintaining a studio in the Y.M.C.A. Building in New York City. In 1898 he became a member of the *Salmagundi Club, the first of many similar art organizations to which he belonged. He continued to paint and sail, cruising regularly that spring from lower Manhattan up along the Connecticut coast. *Henry Ward Ranger may have been the one who encouraged him to spend the summer at Noank, Connecticut, which was also the favorite spot for *Walter Clark and his son *Eliot Clark. Imbibing the mood of impressionism from the local art milieu that fall, Beal stayed in Greenwich, the area in which *J. Alden Weir and *John H. Twachtman produced some of their finest landscapes.
Beal showed for the first time in the annual exhibit of the *Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and he submitted Through the Race at the annual of the National Academy that spring of 1899. The subject was reflective of his interest in sailing, as in September he had participated in the New York Harbor yacht races. He followed some of the French impressionists who "abandoned the dry, timeworn earth" and "turned to the sea." Although it is doubtful that he was motivated by the same serious intentions that prompted Charles-François Daubigny and *Claude Monet to build their floating studios, Beal’s activities might better be likened to those of *Paul Signac, who sailed his boat from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean via the Midi Canal to discover new subjects, which he then recorded in oil and watercolor.
Beal probably went to *Provincetown as a result of his acquaintanceship with *Charles W. Hawthorne, who had spent the last few years as Chase’s assistant at Shinnecock, but moved to Cape Cod. From this point onward, Provincetown became Beal’s summering place. At the annual exhibition of the Salmagundi Club in 1902, Beal was awarded the Hurley Prize. In 1905, he showed at the *Art Institute of Chicago. The Clausen Gallery in New York City presented his first one-artist show of his work, which by this time was unmistakably impressionistic. His work routine included frequent painting trips with other impressionists — *Childe Hassam and *Ernest Lawson as well as his young brother *Gifford Beal and the writer Bob Davis.
Beal’s technique was impressive in the early 1900s — he often used a *high-keyed colorful palette. Summarily, Beal’s impressionism at this period is highly refined and carefully planned. His circus paintings were an interesting and very successful deviation; the theme obviously appealed to him because of its potential for color contrasts and for animation. Some of these oils were worked up from drawings and finely rendered watercolors. He exhibited again in Chicago in 1907 and participated in both the spring and winter annuals at the National Academy as he did in 1908. But even this late, he could produce *Barbizon type landscapes. Beal became an Associate member of the National Academy in 1909, just when his impressionism was nearing the peak of his first period of productivity.
In Europe again in 1911, Beal cruised the Adriatic and then sojourned in Paris, Belgium, Holland, and England. Although he did not exhibit in the *Armory Show of 1913, it was probably a contributing factor to an imminent change in his painting. About 1914, he began to show works executed in a powerful manner, derived primarily from the expressive brushwork and color of *Van Gogh. He replaced his earlier technique with a rhythmic juxtaposition of elongated strokes of bright hue. Beal learned to strengthen his imagery with a subjective, even arbitrary, use of color. Certainly, these are some of his most daring, yet not always his most successful, pictures. It should also be noted that the design element in these works is occasionally mitigated by Beal’s concern to manipulate fat, bright pigment. However, when all the salient features of his colorfully expressive images are harmoniously balanced, the result is an outstanding example of American *post-impressionism. In 1917 he took part in the *Society of Independent Artists exhibit. Around that time, Beal became interested in Asian art and he copied Japanese prints in the *Metropolitan Museum.
In 1919, Beal punctuated his sailing trips with a resumed exhibition schedule, which included shows at the National Academy, at the Art Institute of Chicago, and at the Luxembourg Museum in Paris. In 1921, he did some interesting work in Puerto Rico. Previously, he had created works in a wide variety of media, including etchings and engravings. Unfortunately, while a few of these prints are excellent, others are technically deficient because of a lack of continuity in his graphic production. After a long absence, Beal’s work was seen at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1922, the year that he moved to *Rockport, Massachusetts, at the suggestion of his brother Gifford. Two years later in Boston, he married Helen Higgins of Milford, Massachusetts, a painter and former student of *Joseph R. DeCamp at the Boston *School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Her home was in Rockport, where Beal probably met her.
The *Milch Galleries in New York held a one-man show for Beal in 1925, but from this time until 1929, when the Kraushaar Galleries presented another, Beal maintained a low level of professional art activity. This did not change to any extent during America’s Great Depression; so it was not until 1934, when Kraushaar put on a show of thirty watercolors, that Beal’s work was once again noticed by art critics. Beal exhibited infrequently during the late 1930s and 1940s, when he traveled often to the Caribbean. Nonetheless, scenes of Rockport, *Gloucester, and other well known *picturesque locations are known. Beal painted into the late 1940s and he died at the age of eighty-four.
REF.
Reynolds Beal, 1867 to 1951, n.d.; Ruge, 1906, p. LXIV; Cooley, 1965, p. 60; Phillips, Davis, and Young, 1971; Pisano, 1973, pp. 10, 27-28; Glueck, 1976; Pisano, 1979, p. 17; Pisano, 1981-A, cat. nos. 1-2; A Century of American Impressionism, 1982, n.p.; Pisano, 1983, p. 125; Vose Galleries, 1983-A;
Zellman, 1987, p. 613; Preato, Langer, and Cox, 1988, pp. 33, 43, 77; Bressler, Berman, and Pisano, 1989; Reynolds Beal, American Impressionist, 1991; Nickerson, 1999, pp. 170-171: Davies, 2001, pp. 126-127. |
Paintings by Reynolds Beal
| Palmer's Shipyard |
| oil on canvas: 3 1/2 X 6 |
| unsigned |
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Click Picture to Enlarge
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