Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
American, 1938-2020
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.
to
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
10
922
406
282
279
1
1
Artist: Peter Beard
Elui with World Record Cow Elephant Tusk, 47 lbs., Marsabit Forest, Kenya – Art
By Peter Beard
Located in Zurich, CH
PETER BEARD (1938–2020, USA)
Elui with World Record Cow Elephant Tusk, 47 lbs., Marsabit Forest, Kenya, 1962/2006
Color print with gelatin silver print collage, watercolor, tempera paint, ink
Sheet 141 x 108,6 cm (55 1/2 x 42 3/4 in.)
Unique
Signed recto and verso in ink
Peter Beard (1938–2020) was an American artist who lived and worked in New York and Kenya. In Africa Peter Beard found the central theme of his life, the destruction of the natural animal world by man and civilization. His photographs of Africa, African animals and the journals that often integrate his photographs have been widely shown and published since the 1960s.
Inspired by earlier trips to Africa in both 1955 and 1960, Beard traveled to Kenya upon graduation. Working at Tsavo National Park, he photographed and documented the demise of 35,000 elephants and other wildlife, later to become the subject of his iconic book, “The End of the Game...
Category
1960s Contemporary Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Color, Silver Gelatin
Related Items
Fawn
By Henry Hablak
Located in Philadelphia, PA
"Fawn" is an original ink, colored pencil, and gouache on paper artwork by Henry Hablak measuring 30"h x 22"w.
Henry Hablak is a tattoo artist and illustrator based out of Philadel...
Category
2010s Contemporary Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Gouache, Color Pencil
Liber Mystia XLIII
By Henry Hablak
Located in Philadelphia, PA
"Liber Mystia XLIII" is an original artwork by Henry Hablak made of gouache, ink, and colored pencil on paper measuring 16.25"h x 12.25"w framed and 14"h x 11"w unframed.
Henry Habl...
Category
2010s Contemporary Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Gouache, Color Pencil
Contemporary, sentimental painting of a red Dachshund with graphite drawings
By Robert Zakanitch
Located in Charleston, US
"Almost Dachshund" a sentimental dog painting by Robert Zakanitch a founder of the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970's believes in painting subjects of beauty with delicate...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gouache, Graphite
Horses - Contemporary art, Figurative Painting, Animals, Classics, Art master
By Jozef Wilkon
Located in Warsaw, PL
JÓZEF WILKOŃ (born in 1930)
Polish illustrator, painter and art historian. He studied at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow (diploma in 1955) and at the F...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gouache, Paper
$7,175
H 12.6 in W 18.12 in
Bronx Post Office Mural Study WPA Horse Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern
By Jo Cain
Located in New York, NY
Bronx Post Office Mural Study WPA Horse Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern
Jo Cain (1904 - 2003)
Couriers of History Bronx Post Office Mural Study
Horse in the Sun (with two ad...
Category
1930s American Realist Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Gouache, Board
Animal painting of a 'Tamanuâguacû (Ant-eater)' late 17th/18th century, Brazil
Located in Amsterdam, NL
Follower of Zacharias Wagener (1614-1688)
Tamanuâguasû (Giant Anteater)
On Italian 17th or 18th-century paper, H. 28 x W. 43.5 cm
The present painting is a copy after Wagener’s painting of the anteater, Tamanduá-bandeira, which is illustrated in his “Thier Buch”, with 109 drawings of Brazilian fish, birds and mammals, published in Amsterdam c. 1641, in German.
Zacharias Wagener, or Wagenaer in Dutch, (Dresden 1614 – Amsterdam 1668) was a real adventurer who became Opperhoofd on Deshima and Governor of the Cape of Good Hope in the service of the VOC. During the Thirty-Year War in Germany Wagener tried his luck in Amsterdam where he worked for the map-maker Willem Blaeu. In 1634 he joined the WIC and left for Dutch Brazil where he worked as writer and painter, together with Frans Post...
Category
Early 18th Century Old Masters Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, India Ink, Gouache
$14,948
H 10.83 in W 17.13 in D 0.04 in
Study for Bull and Condor, unique Ink on gouache signed, segy collection, framed
By Jacques Lipchitz
Located in New York, NY
JACQUES LIPCHITZ
Study for Bull and Condor, 1964
Original Ink on gouache on Paper drawing
and signed lower left front
Unique
Held in the original vintage frame
This work is from th...
Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Gouache
$5,500
H 15.5 in W 13.5 in D 1 in
Child and Mother Chicken Greet Birth of a Chick, Children's Book Illustration
By Alice and Martin Provensen
Located in Miami, FL
Welcome to the World. A blue-eyed child in a wide-rimmed hat with flowers and an adult chicken greet the emergence of a chick. The charming illustration is titled " Karen and Etta ( the chicken ) have a Little Chick " Notice the whimsical touch of a piece of egg shell that sits on the chicks head like a little white hat. Signed lower right. unframed
Alice Rose[1] Provensen (née Twitchell; August 14, 1918[2] – April 23, 2018[3]) and Martin Provensen (July 10, 1916 – March 27, 1987) were an American couple who illustrated more than 40 children's books together, 19 of which they also wrote and edited.[4] According to Alice, "we were a true collaboration. Martin and I really were one artist."[4]
Biographies
Their early lives were similar. Both were born in Chicago and moved to California when they were twelve.[5] Both received scholarships to the Art Institute of Chicago, and both attended the University of California, though at separate campuses. After college, Alice went to work with Walter Lantz Studio, the creators of Woody Woodpecker, and Martin took work with the Walt Disney Studio, where he collaborated on Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo.
The pair met in 1943 when Martin, working as a creator of training films for the American military, was assigned to the Walter Lantz Studio. They were married in 1944 and settled in Washington, D.C., where they worked on war-related projects. After the war, they moved to New York City where a friend helped them get their first job, illustrating The Fireside Book of Folk Songs.[5] They illustrated several Little Golden Books including The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown (1949). In 1952, Tony the Tiger, designed by Martin, debuted as a Kellogg's mascot.
The Provensens were a runner-up for the 1982 Caldecott Medal as illustrators of A Visit to William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard...
Category
1970s Impressionist Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor, Gouache
Contemporary, sentimental painting of a Shit Tzu with graphite drawings
By Robert Zakanitch
Located in Charleston, US
"Shih Tzu" a sentimental dog painting by Robert Zakanitch a founder of the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970's believes in painting subjects of beauty with delicate patterns as well as animals. This Shih Tzu dog charms along with Zakanitch's graphite drawings depicting the dog in different positions. Zakanitch was an original exhibitor at Holly Solomon...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gouache, Graphite
Nude Show Girl Buttocks Pondered by Show Horse - Sexy Cartoon Mad Magazine
Located in Miami, FL
This sexy joke cartoon with thought balloons and some bathroom humor was done by the brilliant humorist cartoonist for Mad Magazine, Al Jaffee. The joke's...
Category
1960s Conceptual Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Gouache
$7,500
H 15.5 in W 12.5 in
Graphite and gouache on handmade paper: 'The Remains: 9'
Located in New York, NY
The Remains, A series of 10 works
An insect approaches a crumpled paper doily to eat what remains of a party. This series explores the moment when the trimmings become debris and presumptions of human control are upended. The text-like marks on white vertical rectangles are deliberate, but indecipherable. They appear as if a poem, written in an ancient language, that honors this eternal cycle of destruction and regeneration.
Winifred McNeill...
Category
2010s Contemporary Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gouache, Handmade Paper, Graphite
$1,080
H 10 in W 9 in D 1 in
Whispers & Hisses Series: 'In Knowing'
Located in New York, NY
This series was inspired by a 1950’s era instruction manual found while clearing out my father’s basement workshop. The How To Light A Model manual employed voluptuous female models to teach lighting techniques to amateur photographers such as my father. Diagrams plot the prescribed direction of the lights. The nude women hold the pose, their lips bright red and their feet dirty from the studio floor. As naked props for the authoritarian photographer, their vulnerability seems palpable.
This work visualizes the human condition as a balance between feral and fabricated worlds. Vivid, oversized creatures embody instinctual energy. Wax seals, gold spheres and text-like marks signify rational structures. One speaks in a whisper, the other in a hiss.
Winifred McNeill...
Category
2010s Contemporary Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gold Leaf
Previously Available Items
Gardeners of Eden - Contemporary, Animal, Landscape Photography, Peter Beard
By Peter Beard
Located in Zurich, CH
PETER BEARD (*1938, USA)
Gardeners of Eden, 1984/2009
Gelatin silver print with watercolor, ink
Sheet 59,7 x 75,9 cm (23 1/2 x 29 7/8 in.)
Frame 81 x 95,4 x 4 cm (31 7/8 x 37 1/2 x 1...
Category
1980s Contemporary Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor, Silver Gelatin
Elephant and Eland - Contemporary, Animal, Landscape Photography, Peter Beard
By Peter Beard
Located in Zurich, CH
PETER BEARD (1938–2020, USA)
Elephant and Eland, 1965/2010
Gelatin silver print with watercolor, gouache, ink
Sheet 56.2 x 76 cm (22 1/8 x 29 7/8...
Category
1960s Contemporary Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Ink, Watercolor, Gouache, Silver Gelatin
H 30.56 in W 38.67 in D 1.58 in
Peter Beard drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Peter Beard drawings and watercolor paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Peter Beard in ink, paint, silver gelatin print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1980s and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Peter Beard drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 38 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Joseph Piccillo, Thornton Dial, and Alex Katz. Peter Beard drawings and watercolor paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $295,000 and tops out at $295,000, while the average work can sell for $295,000.
Artists Similar to Peter Beard
Questions About Peter Beard Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
- What is Peter Beard known for?1 Answer1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022Peter Beard was known for his work as a photographer. Over the course of his career, he captured numerous photographs of endangered African animals that appeared in major publications. He died in the spring of 2020. Shop a collection of Peter Beard art on 1stDibs.