LAKE COUNTY OHIO - BIO: William H. Beard (pub 1888) *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Submitter: Tina Hursh Email: ribbit@clubnet.isl.net Date: 21 March 2003 *********************************************************************** >From the The Ohio Biographies Project http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~usbios/Ohio/mnpg.html a part of The U.S. Biographies Project http://members.tripod.com/~debmurray/usbios/usbiog.html Transcribed by Deb. "Historical Collections of Ohio, Vol 2" by Henry Howe. (pub 1888) Page 52-54 William H. Beard was born in Painesville, April 13, 1825. He is famous for his caricatures of the vanities and the foibles of men through the portrayal of their prototypes in the animal kingdom. He began his professional career about 1846 as a traveling portrait painter. In 1856 visited and studied in Europe. In 1860 settled in New York city, and two years later was elected a member of the National Academy. His brother, James H. Beard, was born in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1814, and then in infancy was brought to Painesville, where he spent his boyhood days. Later was for a number of years engaged in portrait and other painting in Cincinnati. In 1870 he settled permanently in New York, and two years later was elected a full member of the National Academy, of which he had been an honorary member since 1848. Of late years he has devoted himself to animal painting, and has attained great eminence as an artist. The works of the brothers are largely permeated with the spirit of humor. James H. has several sons, all artists of fine capacity. When in Cincinnati James H. designed the engraving, for distribution by the Western Art Union, entitled "Poor Relations." A family of aristocratic dogs, consisting of a mother dog, with her plump, well-fed pups, are in their parlor receiving their poor relations, consisting of a mother dog, with her pups, lean and of a half starved look, who have just entered the door. The expressions of contempt and pride on the faces of the first one are in marked contrast with those of the visitors, whose abject, crouching forms are pitiful to behold. While in Cincinnati, Beard painted his celebrated picture "The Last Man," which for a long term of years has been hanging on the walls of the Burnet House there, and has been the admiration of thousands of the guests of that famous hostelrie. The last man is the last victim of the ancient flood, who awaits, on a crag, the closing in upon him of the angry waters. His wife has perished, and floats in the surges at his feet. The rain still beats down from the black wind-tossed sky. The storm-pelted man knows his fate, and awaits it with a stern sadness and a grand fortitude. Few paintings equal this as a dramatic conception, and few arouse the same deep feeling by suggestion. In the American Magazine for December, 1889, is an article upon Mr. Beard, by Leon Adams, from which the following is derived. It is entitled "The Apprenticeship of an Academician." Mr. Mead begins with an extraordinary fact: "James H. Beard has devoted more than sixty years to the art of painting, and has long been a member of the National Academy of Design. He has painted the portraits of some eminent personages, and, both as portrait painter and animal painter, has had numerous admirers that have paid good prices for his productions; and yet, he has never had any instruction in either drawing or color, has never studied the anatomy of either man or beast, and has not had more than a year's schooling in his life. This career is a noteworthy instance of how a strong natural bent will assert itself in spite of very discouraging obstacles." Mr. Beard was born in Buffalo. His father, James Beard, a shipmaster on the lakes, commanded the first brig that sailed on Lake Erie. His wife was the first white woman that visited the post where Chicago now stands. The subject of this sketch began to draw when he was a small boy, and grew to manhood in Painesville, Ohio, and Cleveland. At sixteen he met at Painesville a wandering sign and portrait painter, and concluded to try his own luck with the brush. He found sitters who were not very critical, and painted them in red, white and brown-the only colors he could find at a cabinetmaker's. He made his own implements, except the brushes, and prepared his own canvas. There was something about his pictures that rendered them a success, and insured his popularity. At length he visited Ravenna and painted a full-length portrait for ten dollars, a sum that he considered munificent, for it cost him but $1.25 a week for his board, lodging and washing at the Ravenna hotel. From this time until he was eighteen Beard was a wanderer chiefly, and experienced many hardships. He reached Pittsburg, and saw for the first time in his life a paved street and the wonders of an early Western museum. A keelboat, on which he worked his passage, brought him to this city. At Cincinnati he was paid off with the rest of the hands, and within an hour after landing he parted with his friend, the sign-painter. Having determined to take a trip to Louisville. The deck passage was two dollars, but no one came to collect his fare, and so he enjoyed a free sail, though it was not his intention to defraud the steamboat company. Not knowing but that he was entitled to them, he took his meals regularly in the cabin. At night, together with a young man who had two blankets, he slept on a pile of pig iron. He spent a week wandering about Louisville, adding several unimportant experiences to his budget, and then returned to Cincinnati with about eight dollars in his pocket. Putting on a bold face, Beard obtained work in Cincinnati as a chair painter who had had "experience." No one ever discovered that he was not an experienced chair painter. During his leisure time he used to make pencil drawings at the house where he boarded, of different things, and drop them carelessly on the floor so that they would attract attention. The landlord possessed a strong, characteristic face, and Beard drew him in uniform, he being a colonel in the militia. The young artist also dropped this drawing on the floor of his chamber. His chief ambition was to get to painting portraits again. He thought this drawing would please the colonel, and it did. In short, it led to Beard's receiving a commission to paint the portraits of the colonel and his entire family, consisting of five members, at five dollars a piece. With this work to occupy him, Beard left the chair factory and resumed his portrait painting. But the income was precarious, and he was often "hard up." The article concludes as follows: Mr. Beard was about twenty-two when he married Miss Mary Caroline Carter. Her father, Colonel Carter, was a river trader. Soon afterwards he went down the river, taking charge of one of the boats of his father-in-law. Before reaching New Orleans he confronted many dangers, and passed through many adventures with the river pirates and dishonest traders. On one of his trips to New Orleans Mr. Beard stopped at Baton Rouge and painted a three-quarter length life-size portrait of Gen. Taylor. At this time it was generally conceded that Taylor would be nominated for the Presidency. One day, while at work on the portrait, the artist said to his distinguished sitter, "General, I will vote for you, but under protest. I never knew you as a statesman, and I am not certain that a military man is qualified for the office." Taylor replied, "You are right. I am no more fit to be President that you are.Don't vote for me." Afterward Mr. Beard made a copy of this portrait of Gen. Taylor, and sold it to a gentleman who presented it to the city of Charleston. In 1840 he painted for the city of Cincinnati a full-length portrait of Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison. Since 1863 he has devoted himself principally to animal painting. His animal pictures appeal to popular taste being generally intended to tell a story, humorous or pathetic, and the intention of the painter is easily discernible. There is no better example of his work in that line than "The Streets of New York," which he sold for $3,000. Mr. Beard, with a studio in New York, resides at Flushing, L. I., where he is passing a serene old age, delighting his visitors with some of the incidents of his varied experience. Well preserved, tall, erect, with a yellowish grey beard and abundant white curly hair flowing down his shoulders, wherever he appears he is a striking figure, picturesque and patriarchal. We have spoken of the great suggestion in Mr. Beard's "The Last Man." One of his most recent paintings, "It's Very Queer, Isn't It?" is almost equal to a dissertation on Darwinian theory. No one could ever tire of a picture marked by such concentrated humor and philosophy. The contrasted skulls of the man and of the monkey are a powerful illustration-but who can say of what? This picture shows an old monkey, with the face of a sage, seated in a chair in a meditative mood. On one side of him is the skull of a man, on the other that of an ape. It is evident that they have been a subject of study, and he is pondering whether man came from the monkey or the monkey from the man.