Beal, Gifford, 1879-1956

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The vertical files of the Whitney Library originated with the Museum's founding in 1930 and include research materials on 20th century American art. Central to the collection are the files of the American Art Research Council, an agency administered by the Whitney Museum between 1942 and 1948, in cooperation with thirty museums and university art departments, to document and authenticate American art. The library now serves as a repository for the AARC records. The Council compiled records of the works of leading American artists, including information as to medium, size, signature, date, history, owners, exhibitions, reproductions and auction sales.

From the description of Gifford Beal : artist file. (Whitney Museum of American Art). WorldCat record id: 122469616

Gifford Beal (1879-1956) was a painter from New York, N.Y.

Beal was born in Bronx, New York, and brought up in an artistic household. He was the younger brother of Reynolds Beal (1866-1951). Beal graduated from Princeton University in 1900. He studied at the Art Students League and later served as its president from 1916-1929. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1914. Beal's typical subjects were urban genre scenes of leisure in New York City, dramatic and humorous circus subjects, marine and coastal views, and landscapes surrounding Rockport, Mass. In later life, he often served as an advisor and juror to museum exhibitions.

From the description of Gifford Beal sketches, sketchbooks and papers, 1889-2001. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 669911367

Painter; New York, N.Y.

Beal was born in Bronx, New York, and brought up in an artistic household. He was the younger brother of Reynolds Beal (1866-1951). Beal graduated from Princeton University in 1900. He studied at the Art Students League and later served as its president from 1916-1929. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1914. Beal's typical subjects were urban genre scenes of leisure in New York City, dramatic and humorous circus subjects, marine and coastal views, and landscapes surrounding Rockport, Mass. In later life, he often served as an advisor and juror to museum exhibitions.

From the description of Gifford Beal sketches, sketchbooks and papers, 1902-1953. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220203819

Painter and muralist Gifford Beal was born in New York City in 1879, the youngest of six children. Beal began his art training at 13, when he accompanied his older brother, Reynolds Beal, to the Shinnecock School of Art for classes with William Merritt Chase. Gifford Beal continued to study with Chase for ten years at Shinnecock, the Tenth Street Studio building in New York City, and the New York School of Art. Beal attended college at Princeton University from 1896 to 1900, and from 1901 to 1903 he also took classes at the Art Students League with George Bridgman and Frank Vincent DuMond. In 1908, Beal married Maud Ramsdell of Newburgh, New York, where the Beal family also had an estate. They had two sons, William (b. 1914) and Gifford, Jr. (b. 1917).

Beal received all of his training in the United States at a time when European art training was the norm among his peers. Beal's earliest subject matter was taken from the familiar worlds of New York City and the Hudson River Valley, where he frequently spent his summers. Later work would depict other summer homes, including Provincetown, Rockport, and Gloucester, Massachusetts. Throughout his career he explored a variety of styles in his approach to these and other representational subjects such as garden parties, the circus, Central Park scenes, and coastal scenes in the Northeast and the Caribbean.

Beal exhibited at the National Academy of Design's annual exhibition almost continuously from 1901 to 1956, was a member of the Academy from 1914, and won at least seven awards given by the Academy over the course of his career. He won his first award in 1903 from the Worcester Art Museum. He exhibited regularly in major annual exhibitions and world expositions, including the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915, where he won a gold medal.

Gifford and Reynolds Beal exhibited in a two-man show in 1907 at Clausen Galleries, and the two brothers were both eventually represented by Kraushaar Galleries, where Gifford Beal had his first one-man show in 1920. Beal served as president of the Art Students League from 1916 until 1930, the longest term of any president, and taught there in 1931 and 1932.

Beal was commissioned by the Section on Painting and Sculpture of the Works Progress Administration to paint ten murals for the Allentown, Pennsylvania post office in the late 1930s. The Allentown murals depicted American revolutionaries hiding the liberty bell at Allentown. In 1941, he completed two murals in the Department of the Interior building in Washington, DC: North Country, and Tropical Country, and he painted seven panels at Princeton University in 1943 depicting the life of the nineteenth-century engineer Joseph Henry. He was awarded an honorary Masters degree by Princeton in 1947.

Retrospective exhibitions were held at the Century Club, San Francisco Museum, Des Moines Art Center, and Butler Institute in the early 1950s. Upon his death in 1956, a memorial exhibition was held at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, where Beal became a member in 1943.

From the guide to the Gifford Beal sketches, sketchbooks, and papers, 1889-1954, (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Effie Seachrest papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Stanley Woodward papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Leon Kroll papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Beal, Gifford Reynolds. [Gifford Reynolds Beal] : artist file John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Library, Ringling Museum Library
referencedIn Leon Kroll papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Beal, Gifford : Biographical file. Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
creatorOf Charles Dana Gibson papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Alger Beal papers relating to Reynolds and Gifford Beal Archives of American Art
referencedIn Salmagundi Club records Archives of American Art
creatorOf Gifford Beal sketches, sketchbooks, and papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Timothy Cole papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Olaf Brauner letters Archives of American Art
referencedIn Vose Galleries of Boston records Archives of American Art
referencedIn Denys Wortman papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Beal, Gifford, 1879-1956. Correspondence to Van Wyck Brooks, 1953. University of Pennsylvania Library
creatorOf John Weichsel papers concerning the People's Art Guild Archives of American Art
referencedIn Barry Faulkner papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Kraushaar Galleries records Archives of American Art
creatorOf Beal, Gifford, 1879-1956. Gifford Beal : artist file. Whitney Museum of American Art, Library
referencedIn Henry Ernest Schnakenberg papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Beal, Gifford, 1879-1956. Artist file. Brooklyn Museum Libraries & Archives
referencedIn Selections from the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Archives of American Art collection Archives of American Art
creatorOf Stanley Woodward papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Gifford Beal sketches, sketchbooks, and papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Forbes Watson papers Archives of American Art
creatorOf Timothy Cole papers Archives of American Art
referencedIn Artists for Victory, Inc. records Archives of American Art
referencedIn Kraushaar Galleries records Archives of American Art
referencedIn Delano, William Adams, 1874-1960. William Adams Delano papers, 1902-1960 (inclusive), 1939-1960 (bulk). Yale University Library
creatorOf Beal, Gifford, 1879-1956. Gifford Beal : artist file : study photographs and reproductions of works of art with accompanying documentation 1930?-1990 [graphic] [compiled by staff of The Museum of Modern Art, New York]. Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection
referencedIn Beal, Gifford, 1879-1956 : [miscellaneous ephemeral material]. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas J. Watson Library
creatorOf Mary Turlay Robinson papers Archives of American Art
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith American Art Research Council. corporateBody
associatedWith Artists for Victory, Inc. corporateBody
associatedWith Beal, Alger. person
associatedWith Beal, Maud Ramsdell person
associatedWith Beal, Maud Ramsdell. person
associatedWith Brauner, Olaf M., 1869-1947. person
associatedWith Bruce, Edward, 1879-1943. person
associatedWith Cole, Timothy person
associatedWith Cole, Timothy, 1852-1931. person
associatedWith Cox, Edward person
associatedWith Cox, Edward. person
associatedWith Cox, Edward. person
associatedWith Davies, Arthur B. (Arthur Bowen), 1862-1928. person
associatedWith Delano, William Adams, 1874-1960. person
associatedWith Faulkner, Barry, 1881-1966. person
associatedWith Federal Art Project. corporateBody
associatedWith Gibson, Charles Dana, 1867-1944. person
associatedWith Gifford Reynolds Beal, person
associatedWith Hancock, Walker Kirtland, 1901- person
associatedWith Henry, Joseph, 1797-1878. person
associatedWith Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971. person
associatedWith Kraushaar Galleries. corporateBody
associatedWith Kroll, Leon, 1884-1974. person
associatedWith Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) corporateBody
associatedWith Pennell, Joseph, 1857-1926. person
associatedWith Philadelphia Museum of Art. corporateBody
associatedWith Robinson, Mary Turlay, 1887 or 8-1971. person
associatedWith Rowan, Edward Beatty, 1898-1946. person
associatedWith Salmagundi Club. corporateBody
associatedWith Schnakenberg, H. E. (Henry Ernest), 1892-1970. person
associatedWith Seachrest, Effie, 1867-1952. person
associatedWith The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Library. corporateBody
associatedWith Vose Galleries of Boston. corporateBody
associatedWith Watson, Forbes person
associatedWith Watson, Forbes, 1880-1960. person
associatedWith Weichsel, John, 1870-1946. person
associatedWith Whitney Museum of American Art. corporateBody
associatedWith Woodward, Stanley person
associatedWith Woodward, Stanley Wingate, 1890-1970. person
associatedWith Wortman, Denys, 1887-1958. person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Pennsylvania--Allentown
New York (State)
United States
Pennsylvania--Allentown
New York (State)
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)--New York
Subject
Art, American
Art
Artists
Drawing
Muralists
Muralists
Mural painting and decoration
Mural painting and decoration
Painters
Painters
Occupation
Activity

Person

Birth 1879-01-24

Death 1956-02-05

Americans

Information

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SNAC ID: 73132816