Reynolds Beal

1867-1951

American (New York, New York; Rockport, Massachusetts)

Reynolds Beal is known as one of the early American Impressionists. He showed artistic ability from an early age, and first studied at Cornell University (naval architecture). He painted and sketched in and around Lake Cayuga, Upstate New York. Beal spent 1901 at sea, and worked up his sketchbook entitled Cruising aboard USS School Ship St. Mary's; he also 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 in Noank, Connecticut, with Henry Ward Ranger. After 1912, Beal focused more on the Hudson River Valley, where he painted the colorful and whimsical scenes of the traveling circuses that came through the region.

In addition to oils, he was admired as a watercolorist. Later in life he made Rockport, Massachusetts, his home. His studio overlooked Rockport's Inner Harbor, from where he drew and etched many harbor scenes.

Reynolds Beal

Objects

Beal, Reynolds 1867-1951

Fishermen's Races off Eastern Point

1922