When following a hyperlink in the Biography...use your Browsers BACK button to return you to your previous location.
Post War Period: 1945-1957
Even in peacetime Beau's Navy work continued at a rapid pace. He took
three cruises in 1945 on the USS Iowa, the . USS Los Angeles, and the USS Midway, sketching and painting Naval activity. The
following year he was among the observers at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, recording
the effect at "Operation Crossroads." He witnessed the two blasts from the Able and Baker bombs while on board the USS Fall River. At one point,
he was sitting on a buoy sketching the wreckage of the USS Arkansas and as he
called it, he got "hot pants!," So close was he to the demolished ship, that he
had been exposed to a high level of radioactivity "I was ordered to dispose of all my
garments and have a thorough scrubbing down!,"16 In all, he made 180
on-the-spot sketches and 16 paintings, including two watercolors showing the mushroom
clouds and one of the sinking of the famed carrier, USS Saratoga. The paintings highlighted a Beaumont exhibit
at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Tied to a steel buoy, the artist paints the wreckage of the USS Arkansas in the Bikini Lagoon, 1946
The Sinking of the Saratoga, 1946
The years 1947 to 1957 mark a more relaxed pace in Beau's career. A
cruise on the USS St. Paul to Japan and China in 1947 greatly influenced his subject
matter. "Here was an artist's paradise,"17 he remarked of Peiping. At
that time of civil strife he watched demonstrations in the Forbidden City, where Chinese
shouted "Down with Stalin, Down with Russia!"18 The influence of watercolor
style of the Far East stayed with Beau forever. Some of his most poignant works come from
this period including Temple of
Heaven and Calm on the
Yangtse.
Early in the 1950s, Beau incurred two major injuries to his right arm which slowed his usual pace and kept him from war correspondence work in Korea. Instead, he busied himself with teaching, which he loved. Out of necessity, he learned to paint with his left hand, allowing him to continue work on the ever-present commissions from Naval brass and others who wanted ship portraits. He completed two murals in the early 1950s, one for the Jonathan Club and one for the law firm of Spray, Gould & Bowers.
Beau embarked on another trip to the Orient in 1957 on the USS St. Paul. While in port at Yokosuko, Japan, he spotted a ship docked nearby which he had previously painted. Curious to know if the painting was still aboard the ship, he and his friend Chaplain Richter went over to investigate. They found the painting hanging in the wardroom, just as Beau had last seen it. Returning to the St. Paul, Beau laughingly remarked to Richter, "That must not have been one of my better works. Nobody's stolen it!"19 Beau's sense of humor never failed him.
On board the USS St. Paul bound for the Orient, with Vice Admiral Walter DeLany and Captain Roy Hudson, 1947
Previous Page
Main Bio Index
Next Page
Biography written by Allison Barrett Beaumont
Laguna Beach, California
April 1989