Cecil Calvert Beall was born October 15, 1892 in Saratoga, Wyoming. His father, Charles W. Beall, was born in 1862 in Nebraska. His mother, Eugenia N. Beall, was born in 1868 in Mississippi. His parents were married in 1889, and had two children, Roger (b.1891) and Cecil (b.1892). The father was a designer and salesman of gas lighting fixtures.
In 1899 the family moved to New York City, where they lived at 239 West 103rd Street at West End Avenue.
In 1904 the family moved to Brooklyn, where they lived at 13 Berkeley Place.
Cecil Calvert Beall sold his first painting in 1907 at the age of fifteen, after which he began to study at the Art Students League, where his most influential teacher was George Bridgman (1865-1943). Bridgman was renowned for a unique approach to life drawing, in which his main concern is a sculptural grasp of basic geometric shapes within the human form. According to the artist, "Although I studied at the League for several months, most of my training was in the throes of gaining an extra slice of bread."
In 1909 the family moved to another Brooklyn apartment building at 820 Washington Avenue.
On March 23, 1910 a younger brother, Singleton W. Beall was born. With three sons, the family left their apartment and rented a home at 35 Wyatt Avenue in Yonkers, NY.
During the Great War, Cecil Calvert Beall was drafted and served as a Private in Company G of the 107th Infantry. His older brother, Roger Beall, also served in the Army. Both brothers did their basic training at Camp Wadsworth in Nebraska. Pfc C. C. Beall served overseas from May 10, 1918 to March 6, 1919. After his honorable discharge, he returned to NYC to resume his art career. He lived in an apartment building at 518 West 143rd Street in Harlem. His brother Roger was also honorably discharged, but he returned to live at home with his parents. He never married. He became a clothing and costume designer with the Lucile Studio at 160 Fifth Avenue in NYC.
On April 23, 1919, only a few weeks after returning from military service, the youngest brother, Singleton W. Beall, age nine, died of influenza.
In 1920 Cecil Calvert Beall married Mildred Muriel Hall. She was born December 1, 1899. They had three children, Charles (b.1922), Barbara (b.1924), and John (b.1928).
In 1922 C. C. Beall joined the Picard Advertising Agency of NYC, for whom he illustrated advertisements for Maxwell House Coffee and Firestone Tires. He also sold free-lance illustrations to Collier's, McClure's, Woman's Home Companion, and The Saturday Evening Post.
The 1925 New York State census listed C. C. Beall and his family at 111 Euclid Avenue in Greenburgh, NY.
In the 1930s the Great Depression brought hard times to American industries, so they had to stop buying expensive advertising in slick magazines, and that forced most illustrators to look for other sources of income. Pulp magazines were the only form of publishing that grew more profitable, because they did not rely on advertising income. The pulps sold escapist literature at newsstands for pocket change. In 1933 C. C. Beall began to paint covers for pulp magazines produced by Munsey Publications, such as Argosy, All-Story Love, and Detective Fiction Weekly. He painted over fifty covers for this publisher, but he signed this work "C. Calvert," instead of "c.c. beall." This was intended to preserve his reputation, while waiting for the economy to revive enough to return to his more lucrative career as an illustrator of advertisements in slick magazines.
After years in the pulps, C.C. Beall was once again selling illustrations to Collier's, Redbook, The American Weekly, and Reader's Digest.
During WWII the artist, age fifty, was married and the father of three, so he did not serve in the military, but he did create several recruitment and war bond posters for the government. While working on these commissions he traveled with the Army Air Force as a War Correspondent. He painted the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, which is on permanent display at the Marine Museum of Quantico, Virginia. He also painted the official government portrait of the Japanese surrender aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri.
After WWII he continued to illustrate slick magazines, such as Collier's, Woman's Day, and True Magazine.
In 1966 he was commissioned to paint the U.S.S. Ray, a nuclear powered submarine, as it was launched from a shipbuilding company in Newport News, Virginia.
In his final years C. C. Beall focused on portraiture. According to the artist, "The measure of a good portrait is not how well the owner likes it, but how well it likes the owner! If it looks back with warmth and near love, then it's a good painting."
Cecil Calvert Beall died at the age of seventy-seven in Tampa Bay, Florida, on May 4, 1970.
© David Saunders 2019 |
