Shipbuilding #1
Shipbuilding #1
Artist
Gifford Reynolds Beal
(1879 - 1956)
Dateca. 1940
MediumOil on board
Dimensions33 × 48 in. (83.8 × 121.9 cm)
Framed: 40 in. × 54 7/8 in. × 2 3/4 in.
Framed: 40 in. × 54 7/8 in. × 2 3/4 in.
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Gift of the Estate of Gifford Beal, courtesy of Kraushaar Galleries, New York, 2008.21
Signedl.r., in black paint: Gifford Beal
Accession number
2008.21
On View
Not on viewLabel TextBorn in a family of artists, Gifford Beal looked back to early impressionism and incorporated heavy outlines and bright areas of color into his painting.
While the depicted time period is unclear, the subject of the work relates to the surge in shipbuilding before and during the Second World War.
Beal had recently painted a series of murals funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts—a product of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Painted in a similar style, Shipbuilding #1 focuses on working figures and celebrates regional history and industry.
