Beall was born in Saratoga, Wyoming and studied at Pratt Institute and the Art Students League under George Bridgman. Beall’s magazine illustrations were done in watercolor, a medium in which he excelled. His art is crisp, bold, and dramatically composed, emphasizing both starkly iconic imagery and dramatically transparent movement, often in the same image. His images of beautiful women and elegant men in action-charged contemporary life were published in both black-and-white and color, always deftly exploiting the tonal range of a given reproduction technology. In 1936, Beall painted a portrait of President Roosevelt for the cover of Collier’s, one of his major clients, after which he was appointed art director for the National Democratic Committee. During World War II he continued to paint portraits of decorated heroes for the covers of Collier’s, in addition to contributing war-related reportage. He was a member of the Society of Illustrators and won their Award of Excellence in the 1961 exhibition.
Source Cited: Reed, Walt, The Illustrator in America 1860-2000, New York: The Society of Illustrators, 2001.
