REYNOLDS BEAL was born on October 11, 1867 in New York City. In pursuit of his lifelong interest in the sea and yachts, he began his education at Cornell University studying naval architecture, and graduated in 1887. In the early 1890's he studied painting with William Merritt Chase at Chase's celebrated plein-air school in Shinnecock, Long Island. Beal enjoyed an adventurous life, traveling frequently with his friends and peers (including Henry Ward Ranger, H. Dudley Murphy and Childe Hassam). His foreign travels included the Caribbean Islands, Central America, Asia, the South Seas, and Europe. He made painting trips to beaches he adored in Provincetown, Watch Hill, Key West, Rockport, Atlantic City and Wellfleet. Through his friendships, Beal enjoyed a continuous exchange of ideas and encouragement. He continued his fine art studies in Europe, spending time in both Portugal and Spain.

His paintings were well received when he began to exhibit late in the nineteenth century and he won many prizes. In 1919 his work was chosen for an exhibition at the Luxembourg Museum in Paris, a great honor for an American artist at that time.

Beal lived for many years in Rockport and Gloucester, Massachusetts, and painted and sketched harbor scenes and marine subjects. For numerous years he spent winters in New York City and kept a summer studio in the charming village of Noank, CT nestled beside the famous Noank Shipyard. There he was in his element, able to sail, paint, and visit with other artist friends boarding at the nearby Florence Griswald home in Old Lyme, CT (later known as the Lyme Art Colony.). He began a lifelong friendship with Clifford Mallory, shipping magnate and entrepreneur, yachtsman, and founder of the Mystic Seaport Museum. Sailing with Clifford on the Mallory yacht Bonnie Dundee, Beal watched yachting history unfold in numerous America's Cup challenges and races off Newport's shores. Reynolds Beal brilliantly captured these important, pre-photography, sporting events in full detail. Sail changes and weather conditions were documented on his sketchbook pages.

Beal was active in the art community. He was a member of the American Watercolor Society, the Society of American Engravers, the Salmagundi Club, National Arts Club, and in 1909 was elected an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design. Perhaps most notably, he was a founding member of The Society of Independent Artists and the New Society of Artists. Consisting of fifty of the most important painters of the day, including Robert Henri, George Bellows, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, John Sloan, and William Glackens, these progressive and thoroughly modern artists shunned the limiting structure of Salon exhibitions and patron pleasing shows. Often called "The American Van Gogh," (because of his luscious and vigorous brushstrokes) and "the American Chagall" (because of his playful carnival and circus subjects), Beal is one of America's finest impressionists. By the 1930's, Beal was stricken with an illness, which prevented him from painting in oil as spontaneously as liked. He continued to devote his life to his art and his to his friends, until he died in 1951.

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