{{short description|Canadian artist (1898-1985)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Harold Beament | image = Harold Beament (I0007931).jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Thomas Harold Beament | birth_date = {{birth date|1898|7|23}} | birth_place = Ottawa, Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|1984|5|13|1898|7|23}}<ref name="Profile">{{cite web|url = https://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&id=10887&type=pge|title = Beament, Harold|year = 2013|publisher = Government of Quebec|access-date = 8 February 2023}}</ref> | death_place = Montreal, Canada | spouse = | education = Evening life classes with J.W. Beatty at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto | awards = Member of the Royal Canadian Academy (ARCA 1936, RCA 1947, Pres. 1964-67) | occupation = Painter, graphic artist }}
'''Harold Beament''' {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|RCA|size=100%}} (also known as '''Thomas Harold Beament''') (July 23, 1898 – May 13, 1984) was an Official Second World War artist with the Royal Canadian Navy and held the highest service rank of any Canadian artist in the Second World War – of Commander.<ref name="murray " /> He was noted for the treatment of his depictions in his paintings of landscape and figures in landscape and graphic work, described as "descriptive realism" by some authors.<ref name="macDonald " >A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada</ref>
==Career== Beament was born in Ottawa and attended primary and secondary schools there. He enrolled at Osgoode Hall in Toronto in 1916. On account of World War I, Beament interrupted his studies to join the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR). He served first as an ordinary seaman, followed by a promotion to warrant officer. After the end of the war Beament returned to Osgoode Hall and graduated as a lawyer in 1922. In the same year he began to attend evening life classes with J.W. Beatty at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto.<ref name="murray " >{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Joan |title=Canadian Artists of the Second World War |date=1981 |publisher=Robert McLaughlin Gallery |location=Oshawa |page=30|url=http://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/amurray%2C+joan/amurray+joan/1%2C1%2C152%2CB/frameset&FF=amurray+joan+1943&32%2C%2C152 |access-date=23 July 2022}}</ref> Beament, continued to serve with the peacetime Naval Reserve and was promoted to the rank of officer in 1924. After he had moved to Montreal in 1926, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, Montreal RCNVR Division in 1930.<ref name="macDonald " /> Beament held his first important solo show at the Watson Art Gallery in Montreal and continued to exhibit with the gallery until 1939. Beament became a good friend of gallery owner William R. Watson, as both men had served in the Navy.<ref name="klinkhoff " /> He also exhibited regularly in the Montreal Museum of Fine Art Spring Shows and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) Annual Shows. In 1935, Beament won the Jessie Dow Prize at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art Spring Show.<ref name="macDonald "/> Beament taught art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art School in 1936 and privately from 1936 to 1957. At the outbreak of WWII, Beament entered full-time service with the RCNVR, as a commander of minesweepers and escort vessels on North Atlantic patrols (1939-1943). He rose in rank to Commander in 1943, then as official Canadian war artist, painted scenes at sea till 1947. The Canadian War Museum has some 76 paintings by Beament. He was awarded the Auxiliary Forces Officer's Decoration in 1943.<ref name="macDonald " /><ref name="klinkhoff " /> Following his retirement from the Naval Reserve in 1947, Beament resumed his full-time career as a professional painter. He held two solo shows at Laing Galleries, Toronto in 1948 and 1949 and painted a wide variety of subjects while travelling extensively.<ref name="klinkhoff " /> In the Canadian North he painted scenes of the Inuit, made into prints by Sampson Matthews.<ref>{{cite web |title=Thomas Harold Beament |url=http://www.sampsonmatthewsprints.com/artists/thomas-harold-beament/ |website=www.sampsonmatthewsprints.com |publisher=Sampson Matthews |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref> One Inuit figure by Beament can be seen on a 1955 ten cent stamp that he designed for the Canadian Postal Service (now Canada Post). These lithograph prints of Inuit were used by the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal.<ref name="klinkhoff " /> Beament is represented in the following notable public collections: National Gallery of Canada;<ref>{{cite web |title=Harold Beamrnt |url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/harold-beament, |website=www.gallery.ca |publisher=National Gallery of Canada |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref> Canadian War Museum;<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/artwar/artworks/19710261-1041_ordance-depot_e.html |website=www.warmuseum.ca |publisher=Canadian War Museum |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref> McMichael Canadian Art Collection;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Joan |title=McMichael Canadian Art Collection: One Hundred Masterworks |date=2006 |publisher=McMichael Canadian Art Collection |location=Kleinburg, Ontario |page=20|url=http://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/amurray%2C+joan/amurray+joan/1%2C1%2C152%2CB/frameset&FF=amurray+joan+1943&94%2C%2C152 |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref> Art Gallery of Hamilton;<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://tms.artgalleryofhamilton.com/objects/1106/still-water?ctx=fa567eef-4cea-4ec9-bc08-5240176d46b6&idx=0 |website=tms.artgalleryofhamilton.com |publisher=Art Gallery of Hamilton |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref> Museum London,<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=http://collection.museumlondon.ca/objects/2609/winter-evening-georgian-bay?ctx=78d6572b-3cc9-4d8d-913a-a54f1a82f384&idx=0/objects/2609/winter-evening-georgian-bay?ctx=78d6572b-3cc9-4d8d-913a-a54f1a82f384&idx=0 |website=collection.museumlondon.ca |publisher=Museum London, Ontario |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref> Ontario; and elsewhere.<ref name="macDonald " /> He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy (ARCA 1936, RCA 1947, Pres. 1964–1967)<ref>{{cite book |last1=McMann |first1=Evelyn |title=Royal Canadian Academy of Arts |date=1981 |publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|url= http://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/aMcMann/amcmann/1%2C2%2C11%2CB/frameset&FF=amcmann+evelyn+de+r+evelyn+de+rostaing+1913+1999&8%2C%2C10|access-date=2022-07-24}}</ref> and a member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art (1926-1928), the Arts Club, Montreal, and Pen & Pencil Club, Montreal. He was also an Honorary Member of the Chelsea Arts Club in London, England.<ref name="klinkhoff " /> Beament died in Montreal, in 1985. He is the father of artist, Tib Beament.<ref name="klinkhoff " >{{cite web |title=Harold Beament |publisher=Alan Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal|url=https://www.klinkhoff.ca/artists/516-harold-beament|website=www.klinkhoff.ca |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref>
A fonds of his material is at Library and Archives Canada containing drawings made on his arctic trip.,<ref>{{cite web |title=Thomas Harold Beament fonds |url=https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=102512&new=-8585898400512110313 |website=recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca |publisher=Library and Archives Canada |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://www.canada.ca/en/sr/srb.html?q=thomas+harold+beament&wb-srch-sub= |website=www.canada.ca |publisher=Library and Archives Canada |access-date=24 July 2022}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{S-start}} {{s-culture}} {{Succession box | title = President of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts | years = 1964-1967 | with = | before = Franklin Arbuckle | after = Clare Bice }} {{S-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beament, Harold}} Category:1898 births Category:1984 deaths Category:Canadian male painters Category:Artists from Ottawa Category:20th-century Canadian artists Category:World War II artists Category:20th-century Canadian war artists Category:Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Category:Royal Canadian Navy officers Category:Royal Canadian Navy personnel of World War II