Peter Beard Elephant
1960s Contemporary Black and White Photography
Platinum
1960s Contemporary Color Photography
Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Color, Silver Gelatin
Late 20th Century Contemporary Animal Prints
Black and White
Recent Sales
1960s Contemporary Black and White Photography
Platinum
1960s Contemporary Animal Drawings and Watercolors
Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Silver Gelatin
1980s Contemporary Landscape Photography
Ink, Watercolor, Silver Gelatin
2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography
Platinum
1960s Contemporary Black and White Photography
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Early 2000s Landscape Photography
Silver Gelatin
People Also Browsed
Early 1900s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Antique 15th Century and Earlier Chinese Tang Antiquities
Pottery
20th Century French Table Clocks and Desk Clocks
Enamel, Gold
1990s Pop Art Portrait Prints
Board, Lithograph, Screen, Woodcut
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Dining Room Tables
Marble, Brass
Antique 1870s American Native American Native American Objects
Hide
1970s Contemporary Animal Prints
Lithograph, Offset
1980s Pop Art Portrait Prints
Board, Screen
19th Century Still-life Paintings
Oil
1970s Pop Art Black and White Photography
Silver Gelatin
Antique Early 1900s German Rococo Dinner Plates
Porcelain
20th Century French Art Nouveau Panelling
Ceramic, Wood, Walnut
Early 1900s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings
Canvas, Oil
20th Century Floor Lamps
Glass
20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Vintage 1920s Italian Art Deco Decorative Boxes
Ceramic, Porcelain
Peter Beard for sale on 1stDibs
Reckless, uninhibited and brazen, photographer Peter Beard was, as The Washington Post put it, “as wild as the animals he photographed.” Beard produced some of the most beautiful images of wildlife ever captured on film.
Beard was born in 1938 in New York City. His great-grandfather was James J. Hill, founder of the Great Northern Railway. As a child, he spent his summers at his grandmother’s Tuxedo Park estate, where she gave him his first camera, a Voightländer. He used it to take pictures to accompany his diaries; Beard was a keen diarist throughout his life, amassing more than 100 volumes. At the age of 17, he took a life-changing trip to Africa with Quentin Keynes, Charles Darwin’s great-grandson, using his Voightländer to photograph wildlife.
After attending prestigious private schools such as Buckley and Pomfret, Beard entered Yale University in 1957 as a pre-med student. However, he soon turned his attention toward art, studying under architectural historian Vincent Scully, German artist Josef Albers and painter Richard Lindner. He graduated in 1961 with a degree in art history.
In the 1960s, Beard returned to Africa, where he met Out of Africa author Karen Blixen. Enamored by the continent’s natural beauty, he purchased Hog Ranch near Blixen’s coffee plantation in Kenya. While there, he received a special dispensation from President Uhuru Kenyatta to film, photograph and document the flora and wildlife at Tsavo National Park. This led to The End of the Game, published in 1965, which documented the demise of more than 35,000 starving elephants and 5,000 black rhinos.
Beard became renowned for his black-and-white and color photography, figurative photos and landscapes. He exhibited around the world, including at New York’s Blum Helman Gallery in 1975, the International Center of Photography in Manhattan in 1977, the Centre National de la Photographie in Paris in 1996 and Guild Hall in East Hampton in 2016.
Beard died in 2020 at the age of 82. His works remain in demand with collectors.
On 1stDibs, find original Peter Beard photography, mixed media work and prints.