DOI issue:
No. 295 (October 1917)
DOI article:Nelson, W. H. de B.: William Jean Beauley: an appreciation
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21264#0041
William Jean Beauley: An Appreciation
rapprochement which resulted in Yvon inviting
the young architect to enter his atelier in Paris.
Beauley will always look back tenderly upon
those two years spent abroad under the foster-
ing wing of Maurice Yvon, who guided his
studies and arranged his itineraries throughout
France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy,
and Greece. His enthusiasm and intelligence
struck an answering chord in the master who
had much to do in moulding Beauley’s career
during these most impressionable years.
The first sketching trip embraced the valley
of the Loire, the so-called Chateau District, and
on the eve of the murder of President Carnot he
returned to Paris with a profusion of sketches
and impressions in every known medium.
These were duly submitted to the master and
may be said to have heralded his career as a
painter, though he was not destined for a long
while yet to desert architecture. The work was
all accomplished in a loose, free style, with a
sympathetic feeling for softness of edge and an
elimination of detail that is not all too con-
spicuous in an architect’s office. For this reason
Yvon counselled his pupil to go in for painting,
but Beauley’s life thus far had been too much
affiliated with the different departments of
building construction. He had drunk too
deeply of the Pierian well in matters concerned
with mortar, lathing and plastering, steam-
heating, masonry, cabinet-making, and kindred
problems, and it was well that he followed his
profession further, for no sooner had he returned
to his native town than he was commissioned to
build a residence for the mayor, and to recon-
struct the city waterworks, after which all kinds
of commissions flowed in upon him. Then
followed departure to a larger sphere of activity.
We next find him expanding in Chicago, where
he constructed many town and country houses,
churches, clubs, and business blocks.
Some fifteen years ago, on account of his
valuable knowledge, an important firm—Hart,
Schaffner, and Marx—secured his services for the
rapprochement which resulted in Yvon inviting
the young architect to enter his atelier in Paris.
Beauley will always look back tenderly upon
those two years spent abroad under the foster-
ing wing of Maurice Yvon, who guided his
studies and arranged his itineraries throughout
France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy,
and Greece. His enthusiasm and intelligence
struck an answering chord in the master who
had much to do in moulding Beauley’s career
during these most impressionable years.
The first sketching trip embraced the valley
of the Loire, the so-called Chateau District, and
on the eve of the murder of President Carnot he
returned to Paris with a profusion of sketches
and impressions in every known medium.
These were duly submitted to the master and
may be said to have heralded his career as a
painter, though he was not destined for a long
while yet to desert architecture. The work was
all accomplished in a loose, free style, with a
sympathetic feeling for softness of edge and an
elimination of detail that is not all too con-
spicuous in an architect’s office. For this reason
Yvon counselled his pupil to go in for painting,
but Beauley’s life thus far had been too much
affiliated with the different departments of
building construction. He had drunk too
deeply of the Pierian well in matters concerned
with mortar, lathing and plastering, steam-
heating, masonry, cabinet-making, and kindred
problems, and it was well that he followed his
profession further, for no sooner had he returned
to his native town than he was commissioned to
build a residence for the mayor, and to recon-
struct the city waterworks, after which all kinds
of commissions flowed in upon him. Then
followed departure to a larger sphere of activity.
We next find him expanding in Chicago, where
he constructed many town and country houses,
churches, clubs, and business blocks.
Some fifteen years ago, on account of his
valuable knowledge, an important firm—Hart,
Schaffner, and Marx—secured his services for the