n.d.
Contemporary New York City-based artist Mark Beard has long demonstrated command in a variety of mediums — he works in oil paint, bronze, ceramics and more. Beard is known mainly for his portraits and figurative paintings, but he is prolific in figurative drawing and nude photography as well.
Beard was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1986, he began working as a set designer, and for the next decade, he created more than 20 sets in New York City, London, Frankfurt, Vienna and Cologne. As a painter and printmaker, Beard didn’t wish to confine himself to a rigid style and instead sought to explore Impressionism, Art Nouveau and other movements in a range of mediums. In order to freely move from one style to the next, Beard created several different personas, assigning a specific biography to each one.
Beard's most prominent artistic alter ego is Bruce Sargeant, whom the artist has positioned in exhibitions as an early 20th-century painter. Beard's work as Sargeant is a detailed study of the male physique. The paintings often feature sculpted athletic men engaged in physical activities like wrestling and rowing. The work is steeped in homoeroticism, and the artist’s name itself is a reference to painter John Singer Sargent — while he’s best known for his Edwardian-era portraits, John Singer Sargent also created murals and drawings of male nudes that were similarly reflective of a homoerotic sensibility.
Beard is also an accomplished landscape painter. His great-grandfather, George Beard, was a regional painter and photographer of the Rocky Mountains. Mark spent summers at his grandfather's 19th-century log cabin retreat as a child. These formative experiences are reflected in his own stunning landscape paintings.
Beard's artwork is held in many high-profile museum collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Today, Beard resides in the Manhattan loft that he purchased in 1994 with his partner, James Manfred. It serves as both his home and his studio. The space is filled with his oil paintings, drawings and sculptures.
On 1stDibs, find Mark Beard paintings, drawings, photography and more.
![[Edith Thayer Cromwell (1893-1962)] Elephant](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/mark-beard-paintings-edith-thayer-cromwell-1893-1962-elephant-for-sale/a_9323/1653335096459/Beard_Cromwell_Elephant_master.jpg?width=240)
[Edith Thayer Cromwell (1893-1962)] Elephant
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
[Edith Thayer Cromwell (1893-1962)] Elephant n.d. Signed, u.r. Oil on canvas 23 x 29 inches This work is offered by ClampArt in New York City.
Oil
![[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Artist's Studio, Contemporary Figurative Painting](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/mark-beard-paintings-bruce-sargeant-1898-1938-artists-studio-for-sale/a_9323/1726073227289/Beard_Untitled_Artist_s_Studio__master.jpg?width=240)
[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Artist's Studio, Contemporary Figurative Painting
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
A classical anatomical figure in an artist's studio, surrounded by brushes and a palette, with muted tones creating a contemplative and intimate atmosphere. Contemporary figurative painting by Mark Beard [Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Artist’s Studio n.d. Signed in red, u.r. Oil on canvas 36 x 18 inches $4,000 + $300 framing The pure and brilliant world of Bruce Sargeant’s art seems terribly removed from our own, unhampered by the prevalent inconsistencies of today’s world. Peopled with comely thoroughbreds, his paintings project a world vision unchanged from the models cherished by idealist writers like E. M. Forster and Rupert Brooke in that golden decade that led up to the Great War. Neither buff nor narcissistic, his fair-haired young athletes pose, somewhat uncomfortably, before the painter’s gaze, not wanting the attention yet feeling their duty to submit. Though tantalized by the New World dabbings of Robert Henri and John Sloan, Sargeant found his true inspiration in the art and ethos of fifth-century Athens, where the achievement of the kaloi kagathoi, young men who were “beautiful to look at and worthy of admiration,” were the perfect models for artistic rendering and public adulation. At base, Sargeant’s models, like the sculptures of Lysippus and Praxiteles, are idealized heroes whose achievements on the playing field earn them their renown. However, unlike his precursors, the painter requires no civic responsibility from his ephebes, only physical stamina, gymnastic prowess, and good looks. His work bespeaks a class that existed briefly, but was prolonged and attenuated in the languorous novels of writers such as Denton Welch...
Canvas, Oil
![[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Michael Moonbeam](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/mark-beard-paintings-bruce-sargeant-1898-1938-michael-moonbeam-for-sale/a_9323/1616606006709/Sargeant_Michael_Moon_Beam_master.jpg?width=240)
[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Michael Moonbeam
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Michael Moonbeam n.d. Signed in red, u.l. Oil on canvas 12 x 9 inches $3000.00 + framing This work is offered by ClampArt in New York City.
Canvas, Oil
Entry
By JD Raenbeau
Located in New York, NY
JD Raenbeau Entry 2024 Signed, verso Oil on panel 20 x 16 inches
Oil, Panel
![[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] In and Out of the Water](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/mark-beard-paintings-bruce-sargeant-1898-1938-in-and-out-of-the-water-for-sale/a_9323/1600876243999/Beard_Sargeant_In_and_Out_of_the_Water_1200_master.jpg?width=240)
[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] In and Out of the Water
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Price includes $500 additional cost for framing Oil on canvas Signed in red, u.l.
Canvas, Oil
![[Brechtholdt Steeruwitz (1890-1973)] Heldenbergbesuch (Visit to the Hero's...)](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/mark-beard-paintings-brechtholdt-steeruwitz-1890-1973-heldenbergbesuch-visit-to-the-heros-for-sale/a_9323/1685653330638/Beard_Heldenbergbesuch_1200_master.jpg?width=240)
[Brechtholdt Steeruwitz (1890-1973)] Heldenbergbesuch (Visit to the Hero's...)
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
This work is offered by CLAMP in New York City.
Canvas, Oil
Move
By Robyn Gallick
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original acrylic painting on gallery wrapped canvas. Robyn Gallick is an emerging American female artist living and working in Buffalo, NY.
Acrylic
Antique American School Female Artist Abstract Expressionist Cubist Oil Painting
By elsie orfuss
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique modernist abstract painting by Elsie Orfuss (Born 1913). Oil on canvas. Signed on verso. Nicely framed. `
Canvas, Oil
German Contemporary Art by Ursula Krauss - Untitled
By Ursula Krauss
Located in Paris, IDF
Ursula Krauss is a German artist born in 1984 who lives & works in Nuremberg in Germany.
Canvas, Oil
Chinese Contemporary Art by Xiang Shuai - Runing Around
By Xiang Shuai
Located in Paris, IDF
Oil on canvas Xiang Shuai is a Chinese male artist born in 1992 who lives and works between Beijing and Chongqing, China. In 2010-2012, he studied in the Department of Sculpture Art...
Canvas, Oil
Abstract Expressionist -- Figure in Motion by Norman Lieberman
By Norman Liebman
Located in Soquel, CA
Abstract Expressionist -- Figure in Motion by Norman Lieberman Bold brushstrokes of deep green, black, burnt umber, gold and more result in an exciting, dynamic abstract by Norman Li...
Canvas, Oil
Antique American Abstract Expressionist New York School Circa 1940 Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist abstract expressionist painting. Oil on board, circa 1940. Image size, 24L x 20H.
Canvas, Oil
The French photographer transformed everyday encounters into enduring images of shared experience.
The New York photographer tells us how an encounter with the then-13-year-old boxer led to a decade-long project that saw them both go pro.
