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From Pole to Pole, The Arctic and the Antarctic: 1957-1961
Artist aboard the USS St. Paul returning from Wellington, New Zealand, 1958
Nearing what for most might be retirement age, Beau continued to accept
nomadic assignments. He packed up his cold weather gear and headed north to the Arctic,
attached as staff artist to the Navy's Task Group 572 West and the International
Geophysical Year expedition. The group set out to supply and establish sites along the DEW
(Distant Early Warning) line, which alerts the U.S. and Canada to penetration by
unfriendly aircraft. Based in Point Barrow, Alaska, on the USS Eldorado, Beau
flew and sailed more than 30,000 miles, painting and sketching Arctic territory. On this
expedition he helped make history. Aboard the Canadian ice breaker Labrador; he traveled
through the Beaufort Sea and the Amundsen Gulf to the famed Bellot Strait. The expedition
traversed a usable Pacific to Atlantic waterway The Northwest Passage was found! He wrote
that he was "attracted to all strange places and peoples, but none has held the
fascination of the Northwest Passage....I have the honor to be the first artist to transit
the Bellot Strait and first to paint it."20
The works resulting from this expedition represent some of his most
unusual and exquisite works, as seen in Arctic
Ice Blink and USCG Ice
Breaker Making a Lead, Popular exhibitions of these watercolors later toured the
U.S.
When the Navy launched Task Force 43 to Antarctica in November of 1959,
nothing could keep Beau at home. As staff artist attached to the USS Glacier, he recorded
Naval explorations of the Bellinghausen Sea and the "Fights" Coast. He braved
five attempts to land by plane at McMurdo base, Antarctica. On the sixth attempt, the
group landed safely. His diary reads:
"Traveled up Kenter Glacier, rendezvous with US and NZ Traverse teams on Polar Plateau at 8,600 feet elevation, at 20 degrees below zero. After difficult take-off, the hatch by me flew up, flooding the plane with sub zero cold. Admiral Tyree at first thought I had been sucked out of the plane--nothing serious happened but suffering from intense cold!" 21
Antarctica proved treacherous. At one point, while crossing a snow bridge, Beau fell into an ice crevasse. Roped to a friend, he dangled ten feet above the black freezing water below Slowly, with great effort, his friend pulled him from the crevasse, saving his life. He had been lucky, although his painting arm was wrenched in the process.
Beau completed 350 sketches and 25 paintings in Antarctica, but weather
problems in the land of the penguins prevented him from reaching the geographic South
Pole. Inspired nonetheless by the intense beauty of the place, Beau undertook another
Antarctic voyage in the winter of 1960 with Deep Freeze 61.
As discussions ensued concerning the second trip, the Commodore said,
"Beau, how about making a painting
at the South Pole?" "Yes sir," he replied, "on three conditions.
If I am able physically do so; if weather conditions of blizzards, white-outs, wind and
plain exhaustion do not defeat me; and IF I can get to the Pole!" 22
Once again mesmerized by the scenery he wrote: "Antarctica is fantastic, indescribable, unpredictable, inexplorable and ruthless, yet hauntingly beautiful....It is alone, apart, defiant and awesome. A great white desert." 23
With persistence, Beau made it to the South Pole. Planning to stay for
six hours, he was marooned for seven days! He described this experience as "the most
rugged in a lifetime of adventure and excitement."24 The Pole Station is twenty
feet underground, which Beau felt was like living in a freezer. Despite the conditions,
Beau executed three paintings looking out the scientists' observation dome. He also
brought back many 30-second sketches which were made outdoors in the brilliant midnight
sun. Treacherous conditions on the ice made painting outdoors virtually impossible, even
with two pairs of gloves and a hand warmer. But he succeeded in painting the South Pole at the
geographic South Pole by mixing torpedo alcohol with his paint so it would not freeze.
"Mission Accomplished!" 25
The artist painting on the ice in Antarctica, December, 1959
It is extraordinary to think that Beau traveled to the Antarctic at
seventy years of age, producing paintings of historical relevance and dramatic beauty. In
1964, recognizing his uncompromising patriotism, his devotion to work, and his thirty
years of service as a Navy artist, Beau was granted their most prestigious civilian award,
the Navy Meritorious Public Service Citation. Beau wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, the
Honorable Paul H. Nitze, thanking him. "Please accept my sincere and heartfelt thanks
for this great honor, which I treasure above all other commendations. The work
accomplished over the years in painting and recording for history the activities of the
Navy I love so well, I feel has been a great privilege and a distinct pleasure," 26 Beau
continued his work for the Navy until the end of his life. In 1966 he traveled to Vietnam
to record the Navy's small craft operations against the Viet Cong junks, but his active
participation with the Navy slowed considerably. More often now he and Dot traveled,
visiting Navy friends and other acquaintances through out the world. Beau never did
retire. A backlog of commissions kept him painting five days a week. On the stairwell of
their Laguna Hills home, a woven mat from an English pub with the words "Take
Courage" gave Beau inspiration to climb the stairs every day to his studio to paint.
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Biography written by Allison Barrett Beaumont
Laguna Beach, California
April 1989