Skip to main content

Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

American, 1879-1956

Gifford Beal, painter, etcher, muralist and teacher, was born in New York City in 1879. The son of landscape painter William Reynolds Beal, Beal began studying at William Merritt Chase's Shinnecock School of Art (the first established school of plein air painting in America) at the age of 13, when he accompanied his older brother, Reynolds, to summer classes. Beal remained a pupil of Chase's for 10 years also studying with him in New York City at the artist's private studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building. Later at his father's behest, Beal attended Princeton University from 1896–1900 while continuing his lessons with Chase. Upon graduation from Princeton, Beal took classes at the Art Students' League, studying with impressionist landscape painter Henry Ward Ranger and Boston academic painter Frank Vincent DuMond. Beal ended up as President of the Art Students League for 14 years, "a distinction unsurpassed by any other artist." Beal’s student days were spent entirely in this country. Given the opportunity to visit Paris en route to England in 1908, Beal chose to avoid it, he stated, "I didn't trust myself with the delightful life in ParisIt all sounded so fascinating and easy and loose." His subjects were predominately American and it has been said stylistically "his art is completely American." Beal achieved early recognition in the New York Art World. Beal became an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1908 and was elected to full status as an academician in 1914. Beal was known for garden parties, circuses, landscapes, streets, coasts, flowers and marines. This diversity in subject matter created "no typical or characteristic style to his work." Beal's style was highly influenced by Chase and Childe Hassam, a long time friend of the Beal family who used to travel about the countryside with Beal in a car sketching local sights. Both Hassam and Chase were famous for their impressionist views of New York City and Connecticut and Long Island coastlines. Beal's early work reflects his acquaintance with these painters and focused on the city's commercial and industrial growth. Beal's major influence, however, remained Chase, whose "greatness" Beal attributed to the "sheer fullness of his nature, his store of energy" and his dedication to the profession of painting. "When the story of American art is finally told," Beal predicted, "Chase's name will be high on the list of the great." Regarding his use of color, one art critic wrote: "On the whole, he is inclined toward color that is rich and strong. The garden scenes have masses of deep and gleaming foliage over the gay scenes below. The circus pictures are resplendent in hue. He takes the rich green that crowns the cliffs at Montauk and with it gives depth and richness to their tawny sides. The ocean in Sword Fisherman is an intense blue, neither light nor dark and full of almost imperceptible shadings." Beal found early success with his views of the Hudson Valley where his family had an estate called Willellen in Newburgh, overlooking the Hudson River. A gifted technician and draftsman, Beal did considerable mural painting including seven panels portraying the life of scientist John Henry; North Country and Tropical Country, Department of the Interior building, Washington, D.C and others. Renewing an early interest for the sea, a subject he had favored during his student years, Beal started to achieve recognition for his marine landscapes. In 1921, Beal began spending most of his summers on the Massachusetts coast, first at Provincetown and then at Rockport. Both Beal and his brother Reynolds had a strong attraction to the sea. In the 1940s, Beal, never one to rest on his laurels made a dramatic stylistic change, his painting technique became freer as he replaced naturalistic perspective with an intricately patterned and flattened picture plane. These more decorative works echoed ancient Persian paintings as well as the work of Maurice and Charles Prendergast whose art Beal greatly admired. In the end, Beal adopted a "less objective" style that was high key and "utilizing softer edges." This new work was said to be influenced by Raoul Dufy. However many influences one may choose to cite in Beal's work this is secondary to the fact that Beal throughout his artistic career derived a strong personal statement in his art that was "fundamentally sound and aesthetically pleasing." Beal was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Institute of Arts and Letters, the Architectural League of America and the National Society of Mural Painters. His work can be found in numerous museums and public collections across the country. Beal passed away on Feb. 5th, 1956 at the age of 75 in New York City.

to
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
6
808
408
306
282
1
1
Artist: Gifford Beal
Mount Monadnock
By Gifford Beal
Located in Milford, NH
A fine monochromatic watercolor landscape painting of Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire by American artist Gifford Beal (1879-1956). Beal was b...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Related Items
Mid Century River Birches Landscape Watercolor
Located in Soquel, CA
Mid Century River Birches Landscape Watercolor Gorgeous vibrant mid century watercolor on paper painting of river birch trees by artist Eva Collins Marks (American, 20th century),19...
Category

1950s American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

19th Century 1925 California Coast Marine Landscape Watercolor, Rocks & Waves
By Charles Partridge Adams
Located in Denver, CO
American Impressionist California coastal watercolor painting by Charles Partridge Adams (1858-1942), circa 1925. This stunning piece captures the beauty of the coastline with vibran...
Category

1920s American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Pt. Pinos California, Coastal Figural Landscape Watercolor
By Donald J. Phillips
Located in Soquel, CA
Pt. Pinos California, Coastal Figural Landscape Watercolor Striking depiction of a lighthouse by Donald J. Phillips (American, 20th Century). Signed and dated "DONALD J. PHILLIPS WW/7-89" in the lower right corner. Tag on verso with artist and exhibition information. Presented in a double mat of white and cream, in a green metal frame with glass. Image size: 21"H x 15"W Donald J. Phillips (American, 20th Century) is an artist from San Leandro, CA. He attended California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, where he met his wife. Phillips served in Marine Corps Reserve and was called to duty from 1950-1951 during the Korean War. Exhibitions and Memberships: 21st Annual Santa Cruz Art Exhibit, 1950 New England Watercolor...
Category

1980s American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

"Canal at Indian Mound Road" RARE Ben Fenske Gouache work on paper black & white
By Ben Fenske
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
Painted during the 2015 Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida. A black and white depiction of a canal, is barely recognizable, due to Fenske's wild brushstrokes and lack...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

"Train Station, " Max Kuehne, Industrial City Scene, American Impressionism
By Max Kuehne
Located in New York, NY
Max Kuehne (1880 - 1968) Train Station, circa 1910 Watercolor on paper 8 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches Signed lower right Provenance: Private Collection, Illinois Max Kuehne was born in Halle, Germany on November 7, 1880. During his adolescence the family immigrated to America and settled in Flushing, New York. As a young man, Max was active in rowing events, bicycle racing, swimming and sailing. After experimenting with various occupations, Kuehne decided to study art, which led him to William Merritt Chase's famous school in New York; he was trained by Chase himself, then by Kenneth Hayes Miller. Chase was at the peak of his career, and his portraits were especially in demand. Kuehne would have profited from Chase's invaluable lessons in technique, as well as his inspirational personality. Miller, only four years older than Kuehne, was another of the many artists to benefit from Chase's teachings. Even though Miller still would have been under the spell of Chase upon Kuehne's arrival, he was already experimenting with an aestheticism that went beyond Chase's realism and virtuosity of the brush. Later Miller developed a style dependent upon volumetric figures that recall Italian Renaissance prototypes. Kuehne moved from Miller to Robert Henri in 1909. Rockwell Kent, who also studied under Chase, Miller, and Henri, expressed what he felt were their respective contributions: "As Chase had taught us to use our eyes, and Henri to enlist our hearts, Miller called on us to use our heads." (Rockwell Kent, It's Me O Lord: The Autobiography of Rockwell Kent. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1955, p. 83). Henri prompted Kuehne to search out the unvarnished realities of urban living; a notable portion of Henri's stylistic formula was incorporated into his work. Having received such a thorough foundation in art, Kuehne spent a year in Europe's major art museums to study techniques of the old masters. His son Richard named Ernest Lawson as one of Max Kuehne's European traveling companions. In 1911 Kuehne moved to New York where he maintained a studio and painted everyday scenes around him, using the rather Manet-like, dark palette of Henri. A trip to Gloucester during the following summer engendered a brighter palette. In the words of Gallatin (1924, p. 60), during that summer Kuehne "executed some of his most successful pictures, paintings full of sunlight . . . revealing the fact that he was becoming a colorist of considerable distinction." Kuehne was away in England the year of the Armory Show (1913), where he worked on powerful, painterly seascapes on the rocky shores of Cornwall. Possibly inspired by Henri - who had discovered Madrid in 1900 then took classes there in 1906, 1908 and 1912 - Kuehne visited Spain in 1914; in all, he would spend three years there, maintaining a studio in Granada. He developed his own impressionism and a greater simplicity while in Spain, under the influence of the brilliant Mediterranean light. George Bellows convinced Kuehne to spend the summer of 1919 in Rockport, Maine (near Camden). The influence of Bellows was more than casual; he would have intensified Kuehne's commitment to paint life "in the raw" around him. After another brief trip to Spain in 1920, Kuehne went to the other Rockport (Cape Ann, Massachusetts) where he was accepted as a member of the vigorous art colony, spearheaded by Aldro T. Hibbard. Rockport's picturesque ambiance fulfilled the needs of an artist-sailor: as a writer in the Gloucester Daily Times explained, "Max Kuehne came to Rockport to paint, but he stayed to sail." The 1920s was a boom decade for Cape Ann, as it was for the rest of the nation. Kuehne's studio in Rockport was formerly occupied by Jonas Lie. Kuehne spent the summer of 1923 in Paris, where in July, André Breton started a brawl as the curtain went up on a play by his rival Tristan Tzara; the event signified the demise of the Dada movement. Kuehne could not relate to this avant-garde art but was apparently influenced by more traditional painters — the Fauves, Nabis, and painters such as Bonnard. Gallatin perceived a looser handling and more brilliant color in the pictures Kuehne brought back to the States in the fall. In 1926, Kuehne won the First Honorable Mention at the Carnegie Institute, and he re-exhibited there, for example, in 1937 (Before the Wind). Besides painting, Kuehne did sculpture, decorative screens, and furniture work with carved and gilded molding. In addition, he designed and carved his own frames, and John Taylor Adams encouraged Kuehne to execute etchings. Through his talents in all these media he was able to survive the Depression, and during the 1940s and 1950s these activities almost eclipsed his easel painting. In later years, Kuehne's landscapes and still-lifes show the influence of Cézanne and Bonnard, and his style changed radically. Max Kuehne died in 1968. He exhibited his work at the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, and in various New York City galleries. Kuehne's works are in the following public collections: the Detroit Institute of Arts (Marine Headland), the Whitney Museum (Diamond Hill...
Category

1910s American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

1940s Western Landscape of Silver Plume, Colorado, Framed Oil Pastel Drawing
By Elsie Haddon Haynes
Located in Denver, CO
A captivating early 20th-century Western mountain landscape by Colorado artist Elsie Haddon Haynes (1884–1963), this original oil pastel drawing captures the charming town of Silver Plume...
Category

1930s American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Oil Pastel

Vibrant Watercolor Landscape of a Sunlit Forest and Rolling Hills
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Vibrant Watercolor Landscape original watercolour painting on artist paper signed by Marjorie Schiele (1913-2008) *see notes below piece of paper is 9.5 x 12.5 inches In good conditi...
Category

Early 20th Century American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Bright Idyllic Watercolor Landscape of a Lakeside Village with Canoeists
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Idyllic Watercolor Landscape original watercolour painting on artist paper signed by Marjorie Schiele (1913-2008) *see notes below piece of paper is 9.5 x 12 inches In good condition...
Category

Early 20th Century American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Searching the Waters
By Lu Haskew
Located in Loveland, CO
Searching the Waters ​by Lu Haskew Pastel 18x22" image size, 26x30" framed Figurative Portrait of young children on a dock looking into the water. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Lu Haskew 1921...
Category

1990s American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

California Vineyard, Large-Scale Farmhouse Landscape Watercolor
By Carolyn Hofstetter
Located in Soquel, CA
Vibrant large-scale landscape watercolor of a California vineyard by S.W.A. artist Carolyn Hofstetter (American, b.1927). This beautiful scene of ...
Category

Late 20th Century American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

A Colourful Garden Scene Captured in Watercolour French Mid 20th Century
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
A Colorful Garden Scene original watercolour painting on artist paper signed by Marjorie Schiele (1913-2008) *see notes below piece of paper is 9.5 x 12.5 inches In good condition p...
Category

Early 20th Century American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

"Monhegan Island, Maine, " Edward Dufner, American Impressionism Landscape View
By Edward Dufner
Located in New York, NY
Edward Dufner (1872 - 1957) Monhegan Island, Maine Watercolor on paper Sight 16 x 20 inches Signed lower right With a long-time career as an art teacher and painter of both 'light' and 'dark', Edward Dufner was one of the first students of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy to earn an Albright Scholarship to study painting in New York. In Buffalo, he had exchanged odd job work for drawing lessons from architect Charles Sumner. He also earned money as an illustrator of a German-language newspaper, and in 1890 took lessons from George Bridgman at the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. In 1893, using his scholarship, Dufner moved to Manhattan and enrolled at the Art Students League where he studied with Henry Siddons Mowbray, figure painter and muralist. He also did illustration work for Life, Harper's and Scribner's magazines. Five years later, in 1898, Dufner went to Paris where he studied at the Academy Julian with Jean-Paul Laurens and privately with James McNeill Whistler. Verification of this relationship, which has been debated by art scholars, comes from researcher Nancy Turk who located at the Smithsonian Institution two 1927 interviews given by Dufner. Turk wrote that Dufner "talks in detail about Whistler, about how he prepared his canvasas and about numerous pieces he painted. . . A great read, the interview puts to bed" the ongoing confusion about whether or not he studied with Whistler. During his time in France, Dufner summered in the south at Le Pouleu with artists Richard Emil Miller...
Category

Early 20th Century American Impressionist Gifford Beal Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Paper

Gifford Beal drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Gifford Beal drawings and watercolor paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Gifford Beal in paint, paper, watercolor and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Impressionist style. Not every interior allows for large Gifford Beal drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 37 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Albert Van Nesse Greene, Robert Hallowell, and Louis Oscar Griffith. Gifford Beal drawings and watercolor paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $4,900 and tops out at $4,900, while the average work can sell for $4,900.

Recently Viewed

View All