Item is a multicoloured silk screen print entitled "The Waiting Ones", published ca. 1952-1955 by Sampson-Matthews Limited of Toronto for the National Gallery of Canada - this print being number 39 in the series of 89 silk screen prints reproducing original oil paintings by Canadian artists. The above print is from a painting by Harold Beament, R.C.A., (1898-1984).
Harold Beament, artist and naval officer, was born in Ottawa, Ont., and educated at the Model School and Ottawa Collegiate Institute. After serving in the First World War with the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, 1917-1918, he studied law at Osgoode Hall, Toronto and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1923. He also studied at the Ontario College of Art, 1922, and was appointed Canada's fine arts representative to the British Empire Exposition at Wembly, 1924-1925. Between 1925 and 1930, Beament worked as a commercial artist in Montréal and between 1930 and 1935, he commanded the Montréal division of the R.C.N.V.R. He taught painting at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1936-1937.
He served as an officer with the R.C.N.V.R. during the Second World War, commanding minesweepers and escort vessels. He was appointed an official Senior Naval War Artist in 1943 and retired in 1947 with the rank of commander. In 1955, Beament designed the Canadian ten-cent Inuit stamp. He taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art, 1962-1963, and was President of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, 1964-1967.
Harold Beament travelled extensively during his career. His subjects were often marine or Inuit. Beament's work is represented in the National Gallery of Canada, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, National Archives of Canada, Canadian War Museum, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, among other public repositories, and in a number of corporate collections. Harold Beament won the Jessie Dow Award, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in 1935. He was made an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, 1937, and a full member, 1948. He received the Volunteer Officers Decoration in 1943. He was awarded a centennial medal, 1967, and a Queen's Jubilee medal, 1977. See: Canadian Who's Who, 1984, pp. 74-75. Canadian Who's Who, 1984, p. 74-75.
