Friday, April 9, 2010

Museum Acquires Sketchbooks of Reynolds Beal


This is a 1905 sketch of a Pennsylvannia-class armored cruiser in the Hudson River, drawn by  American impressionsit Reynolds Beal.  The ship was a part of a naval review in honor of Lord Louis Alexander Mountbatten and his squadron of British warships during their trans-Atlantic tour. The museum has recently acquired two sketchbooks that Beal drew during the event.

Beal was a naval architect by training, but an artist by passion. He learned to paint from William Chase and his famous art school on Long Island.  Many of Beal's work use ships and waterways as his subject.