SOLD WORKS
Thomas Harold Beament was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1898. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy during WWI, after which he attended Osgoode Hall in Toronto and completed a Barrister-at-law degree in 1922. The same year he attended evening life drawing classes under J.W. Beatty at the Ontario College of Art. Deciding to become a full-time artist, Beament developed a distinct personal style of decorative realism in his painting. He quickly came to be known for his landscapes, many including figures. He exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art spring shows and won the Jesse Dow Prize there in 1935. He taught at the MMFA in 1936 and then privately for another two decades. Beament became an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1936, a full member in 1947, and would go on to serve as president of the RCA from 1964 to 1967.
The Watson Gallery in Montreal held Beament’s first important solo show, and continued to exhibit his work until 1939. With the outbreak of WWII, Beament entered full-time service with the RCNVR; he served on North Atlantic patrols for three years and rose in rank to Commander by 1943. Beament was also selected as a Canadian war artist. He painted in the Mediterranean, on convoys in the North Atlantic, around the ports of Newfoundland, and portrayed assault landings and minesweeping duties in the English Channel. The Canadian War Museum now houses 76 such works. He was awarded the Auxiliary Forces Officer’s Decoration in 1943. Beament retired from the Naval Reserve in 1947 and resumed a full-time career as a professional painter. The Laing Gallery in Toronto held two shows of Beament’s work in 1948 and 1949.
Beament traveled to Britain, the West Indies, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Panama and the Southern United States, as well as extensively throughout Canada. Along with Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson, Beament was one of the first artists to explore the Arctic. He painted Inuit genre scenes in the Canadian North and in 1955 designed a 10-cent stamp for the Canadian Postal Service depicting an Inuit figure. Later he also made lithographs for the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. His works are included in the Sampson-Matthews Collection of original silkscreens produced between 1943 and 1957 under the supervision of Group of Seven members, A.J. Casson and A.Y. Jackson.
Beament’s work can be found in both public and private collections worldwide including the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Canadian War Museum, the Seagram collection, and the National Archives of Canada. He lived in Quebec until his death in 1984.