RB FINE ARTS NOVEMBER, ART & ANTIQUE AUCTION

Lot 17:

George DeBeeson 1897-1965 California Landscape Painting

The auction will start in __ days and __ hours

Start price: $1,000

Estimated price: $2,000 - $4,000

Buyer's premium: 21%

George DeBeeson 1897-1965 California Landscape Painting Titled "EVENING SHADOWS 1959". Frame Measure 37" x 47", Sight 29 1/4" x 39 1/4". From A Southwest Florida Gentleman’s Estate. BIO: George DeBeeson, my father, was born George DeJean Beeson, in Shickley, Nebraska on May 31, 1897. After his Navy days, George had a legal name change, joining the De to Beeson. He grew up on the Beeson farm in Geneva, Nebraska not far from his birthplace. He had a natural talent in artwork, but he and three brothers learned their father’s trade of blacksmithing. George’s natural abilities and varied experiences would take him far beyond what his grade 8 education would have. In fact, an oral exam given by an education official years later, indicated he acquired the equivalent of a university education. Not surprising, considering he helped his brother, Wes, build an airplane on the farm in 1914; trained for the Navy Air Corps in 1918 and flew for 20 years afterward (including stunt flying); had a sign business; worked in the aircraft industry; developed an automatic pilot; progressed with his artwork to become an animator for Walt Disney Studios for several years then on to Walt Lanz and Universal Studios; created and manufactured an extensive line of ceramics; painted volumes of landscapes and seascapes; built several violins as well as played them; was a jack of all trades and good at many. I remember growing up thinking, "My dad can make anything", and I think he could have. In 1914, the brothers built an airplane on the farm made from "piano wire and canvas and bicycle tires" and entered it in the Geneva County fair and won a prize. That was the start of a keen interest in aviation that resulted in years of flying and culminated in developing a unique automatic pilot. Aviation history and technology was changing rapidly through the decades of the 20’s and 30’s. I remember stories of George rubbing shoulders with some of the "greats" of those times like Frank Hawkes, Jimmy Doolittle, Francisco de Pinedo, Wiley Post, and the like. Those must have been exciting times! George worked for some of the "big name" aircraft manufacturing companies of the time, always trying to figure out how to perfect the automatic pilot. He finally succeeded in 1929 and by 1931 had patented a robot that would outperform anything of the day, according to various reports (see clippings, and what others say). Several outfits offered to finance and manufacture the robot, but complications started cropping up that seemed to stop George from reaping the benefit of his invention. I had always heard that he lost it once through divorce and then through a company he worked for. As I read through some of the documentation, I discovered that he was in litigation with a company that entered into an agreement with him, but he claimed tried to swindle him out of his interests. That was the Kormann Aero-Safety Appliance, Inc., a Nevada corporation operating in Glendale, California. It’s not clear what happened, but he certainly did not become the wealthy individual he hoped to be. Things were happening fast in the flying world, and of course the automatic pilot became an important part of the history of aircraft. Whether George’s invention was incorporated into the popular mechanism of the day or not is uncertain. Some family members claim that Sperry or Continental Motors got the rights to it. General Electric wanted to test it further. The impact of his invention may never be known. One thing is sure, the expression of calling the auto-pilot "George", may have more meaning than meets the eye!As an aside, I’m including an interview of Roland Reiss done by Paul Karlstrom for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in which my father is described as a "Renaissance man misplaced". Certainly Mr. Reiss is not correct to assert George DeBeeson invented the first automatic pilot, but his description of my father’s background and influence on Mr. Reiss is very interesting. Here is the excerpt concerning George:"The other person I want to mention who was very, very important to me was a man who lived in south Pomona named George DeBeeson. He was an incredible man! He worked for Disney and left over a dispute about one of his inventions. He painted California landscape school oil paintings and he was kind of a Renaissance man misplaced. He had invented the first automatic pilot for the airplane. He showed me photographs of him with Marconi. He had flown "Jennys" [Curtis JN-4D] and all that sort of thing. He had a ceramics factory in south Pomona where he made black panthers and tigers. I have to show you this one of little girls with lambs which in those days were sold at Bullocks. They were never painted. They were glazed white. The tigers and panthers were glazed in color. I painted some of them for him. I would just come in and work on things now and then. Before meeting George, I signed up for an art class at the Recreation Department and a graduate student from Claremont was supposed to teach this class. He came down twice and then we were told he wasn’t going to come any more, but we’ll get an instructor for you. So the next week there was this old man named George DeBeeson standing there. He immediately adopted me as his art apprentice. It was an incredible experience because behind his large concrete block factory he lived in a tarpaper shack. He was probably sixty-five years old and his wife was twenty-four. She was a church organist and he built this giant organ for her to rehearse in the home. His son-in-law was Korla Pandit, who was the great figure on television in the early days, who played the organ and all the women would sigh over his playing. Korla would come out on weekends and they would have dinners and I would always be there. PAUL KARLSTROM: How do you spell his name again? ROLAND REISS: K-o-r-l-a is the first name. P-a-n-d-i-t is his last name. He was a Hollywood East Indian. He would talk to me about walking on coals and East Indian philosophy. DeBeeson also had this life-size plaster fountain in which one of his sons was peeing amidst a group of swans. Even though it was in their backyard, it became a major scandal in the little town of Pomona. He was an incredible character. I think what impressed me was his restless, inventive mind. He was firing ceramic tests for the government which would later become the kind of ceramics used in space technology, ceramics that would withstand very high temperatures. He taught me California landscape school painting. I would go out on weekends with him to do that. He made me study Michelangelo, Vermeer and Cézanne in large books published by Phaidon. He taught me everything he could teach me. He was just a wonderful, wonderful man. I recalled years later when I finally wound up at UCLA and thought I was really a hot shot. I brought back all my slick junior year work to show him. He was very wise, he said, "This is exactly what I’d be doing if I were your age." And then he said to me – I will never forget this – "You are better than all those people in Claremont." -Oral history interview with Roland Reiss, 1997 Aug.-1999 June, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. (for full interview re Roland Reiss see website:) http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/reiss97.htm. From A Fine Southwest Gentleman’s Estate. Please carefully read our terms of sale, shipping information, and request any condition reports or photos prior to placing a bid. Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. RBFineArts CFL INC. shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition or completely free from wear and tear, imperfections, or the effects of aging. Please email for a condition report and photos, if desired. Emails should be received at least 48 hours in advance of the date of the auction.