In the early 1920s, Beatty became the Acting Principal of the Ontario College of Art. Like many of
his contemporaries, his career as an educator kept his sketching trips close to home and over the weekends. It was during this period where the sunlit woods of Ontario became prominent in his work, and as we can see in Birches, Bowmanville, he became an expert in rendering the dappled effects of light in the trees. Always an intensely productive artist, Beatty’s production slowed down considerably in 1926 when he was diagnosed with cancer. Though seriously ill, the panels he did produce held the same attention to detail and refined quality that his earlier works, as we can see in Birches, Bowmanville, Ontario.
(1869-1941) Born in Toronto, Ontario , Beatty, quit school early to work as a house painter and engraver. He became a fireman in Toronto and married Caroline Cormack who was inspirational in his development as an artist. He studied under J.W.L. Forster, George A. Reid, F.M. Bell-Smith and William Cruikshank…
(1869-1941) Born in Toronto, Ontario , Beatty, quit school early to work as a house painter and engraver. He became a fireman in Toronto and married Caroline Cormack who was inspirational in his development as an artist. He studied under J.W.L. Forster, George A. Reid, F.M. Bell-Smith and William Cruikshank in his spare time from the fire hall. He also studied at the Academie Julian in Paris, and in London during his travels to other parts of Europe before WWI. A landscape and still life painter, his early landscapes have the sombre, gray aura of the French and Dutch traditional school of painting. Around 1910 he was among the first of the Toronto artists to travel to northern Ontario to paint. During this period he befriended Tom Thomson and A.Y. Jackson. He painted in the Rocky Mountains in 1914 with A.Y. Jackson and C.W. Jefferys. His association with the artists who would later become members of the Group of Seven greatly influenced his work. His paintings and prints became much more colourful. Teaching at the Ontario College of Art (1912-41), he exerted a considerable influence on other artists.
