Gifford Beal (1879-1956)

He was born in The Bronx, New York City. He was a younger brother of the impressionist artist, Reynolds Beal, and an uncle of Marjorie Acker who with her husband Duncan Phillips co-founded the Phillips Collection at Washington D.C. Gifford studied painting from 1892 with William Merritt Chase. He graduated from Princeton in 1900 and continued his studies at the Art Students League of New York of which he was elected President from 1916. He lived and worked at his brother's house overlooking the Hudson, Echo Lawn, and was a member of the artists community in Gloucester, and was no doubt a visitor to Beauport. He is best known for landscapes on the Hudson River; Caribbean Islands; public holidays; and, circus scenes etc. He was a member of numerous artistic and intellectual societies. In 1908, he married Maud Ramsdell.