Ep 161: Kyle DeCicco-Carey - Albertus van Beest

Southcoast Artists Index

Welcome, Kyle DeCicco-Carey to In-Focus Podcast Number 161! Kyle is the Library Director at the Millicent Library in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and speaks with us on the fifth and last episode of this series about famous Fairhaven artists. This episode is about Albertus van Beest. Our five-part series of conversations on celebrated Fairhaven artists from days gone by with Kyle have included:

• • Podcast Episode 132 - William Bradford
  • Podcast Episode 133 - Lemuel Eldred
  • Podcast Episode 146 - Robert Swain Gifford
  • Podcast Number 152 - Charles Henry Gifford

This series is supported in part by a grant from the Fairhaven Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Albertus van Beest was born in Rotterdam, where he grew up near the city's wharves. His talent for sketching got the attention of Prince Henry of the Netherlands, who asked him to travel with him and the Dutch fleet to the Mediterranean.

According to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Albert van Beest (1820-1860) "was born in Holland, [and] spent three years collaborating with William Bradford. A talented marine artist, Van Beest was particularly skilled at capturing the drama of shipwrecks and storms at sea."

His travels, the first of which were over a span of three summers, took him to Morocco and many other places. He continued sketching on his travels to Brazil, Iceland, Patagonia, and the Falklands. In 1845 he left home and sailed to New York, where he lived for fifteen years. One of van Beest's pupils was Fairhaven, Massachusetts marine painter William Bradford. R. Swain Gifford is also said to have been one of his pupils.

Bradford sought him out in New York and invited him to share a studio in nearby New Bedford. They worked and collaborated at that location for three years. Van Beest was as dramatic and temperamental as the scenes and subjects of his marine paintings. He returned to New York City where he died at the age of forty.

The In-Focus Podcasts are up close and personal conversations with the makers, performers, supporters, and cultural impresarios of the remarkable creative community of South Coast Massachusetts including New Bedford, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Westport, and beyond.