Remembering Artist and Adventurer Peter Beard

Peter Beard lived an extraordinary life. Best known for his fearless wildlife photography and similarly wild personal exploits, Beard traversed the worlds of nature and celebrity, finding himself equally at home shooting lions on the African savanna and mingling with art-world luminaries such as Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Karen Blixen and Mick Jagger. Beard started creating his renowned nature collages aged just ten – a practice which over the decades evolved to form much of his artistic output, melding illustrations, photography, diary entries and science in his highly personal style. A selection of these remarkable works were recently published by Taschen in a beautiful new book. This weekend, the sad and shocking news broke that after nearly three weeks missing, Beard was found dead in the woods near his home in Montauk on the East End of Long Island. “We are all heartbroken by the confirmation of our beloved Peter’s death,” the artist’s family have said in a statement. “He died where he lived: in nature.”