Reynolds Beal

Reynolds was the brother of the better-known artist Gifford Beal. Reynolds first studied shipbuilding at Cornell University, then marine painting in Long Island. He was an impressionist and his brother encouraged him to study in Europe. Their father was the landscape painter William Reynolds Beal (1838-1912), while their niece, Marjorie Acker, was also a famous painter, who was married to the renowned art critic and collector, Duncan Phillips (1886-1966). Reynolds studied in Madrid and his love of the sea brought him to predominantly maritime motifs. He lived in Rockport, Massachusetts and painted mainly scenes from the Caribbean, Central America, Portugal, and the U.S. West Coast.

All his three submitted works were etchings. Marblehead - Yachts Racing was a 20 x 30 cm drypoint etching from 1929. His second entry was Fisherman’s Race – The “Henry Ford”. The Henry Ford was launched in 1922 and competed in the International Fisherman’s Race that year but lost to the legendary Canadian yacht “Bluenose”. It did, however, win an All-American Fisherman’s Race in 1923 off Gloucester, Massachusetts. The ship sank off Rocky Harbor, Newfoundland in 1928. There is an etching titled Gloucester Fisherman’s Races – Henry Ford (1928, 20 x 33 cm), probably the work presented in 1932. Becalmed – Marblehead was also from 1929 and was also a 20 x 30 cm etching.