 A modernist painter, Herbert Clinton Beagary was born May 19, 1882 in Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and died May 1952 at his summer home in Harvey Cedars, Ocean County, New Jersey.
In 1911 he married Harriet Thomas Steel in Philadelphia, where they subsequently made their home, and he ran the Beagary School of Creative Art. Beagary was a member of the Philadelphia Art Alliance.
He exhibited at the Philadephia Art Alliance in 1949. In an article by the Philadelphia Inquirer his work is described as fantastic, bordering the surreal as evidenced in Cagliostro's Secret, Intricate Indecision, and The Skull. His paintings of the animal world (Berceuse and The Captiva Batutta) showed his humourous side. The show also included Oriental paintings, such as his Ancient Temple as well as landscapes with titles such as August Morning, To the Lighthouse, Evening in the Flats and The Lonesome Place.
He served in both World Wars and is known to have visited England.
Sources:
Obituary, New York Times, May 21, 1952
ancestry.com
C.H. Bonte, "Lear and Beagary Hold Exhibitions of Paintings of Unusual Imagination", The Philadelphia Inquirer December 4, 1949.
Information courtesy of Jacqueline Sleeper Russell, a cousin of the artist's.
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