George Biddle Art
American, 1885-1973
Born to a prominent family in Philadelphia on January 24, 1885, George Biddle put his interest in art aside to accommodate his family's wishes and study law. He graduated from Harvard University in 1908 and Harvard Law in 1911, becoming a member of the Philadelphia bar. However, by the end of that same year, Biddle abandoned law and began studying art at the Académie Julian in Paris. Biddle continued his studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts during 1912 and 1913. He returned to Europe in 1914, studying in Munich and then in Madrid, where he studied printmaking. Biddle also spent the summers of 1915 and 1916 painting Impressionist works in France before he enlisted in the army in 1917. Following World War I, Biddle experimented in sculpture and graphics in Tahiti for two years and then in France between 1924–26. In 1927, Biddle returned to the United States settling in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. The following year, he traveled through Mexico on a sketching trip with Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera. During the Great Depression, Biddle actively sought government funding for the arts. His correspondence with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a former classmate at Groton Preparatory School and Harvard, resulted in the establishment of the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration. The Depression fueled Biddle's desire to create socially conscious art. He established himself as a Social Realist through powerful murals depicting poverty. The Tenement, which he created in 1935 for the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., was his first federally commissioned mural. The project led to controversy as people deemed his depiction of poverty to be inartistic. In addition to his artwork, Biddle authored several art books including An Artist at War and An American Artist's Story and he contributed regularly to national art magazines. In 1937, Biddle wrote the introduction for Boardman Robinson: Ninety-Three Drawings which was published by the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, where he taught in 1936 and 1937. In addition to teaching in Colorado, Biddle later taught at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, the American Academy in Rome and Saugatuck, Michigan. He served as a chairman of the U.S. War Artists Committee during World War II and in 1950, President Truman appointed him to the Fine Arts Commission for which he served a 14-year term. Biddle died on November 6, 1973, in Croton-on-Hudson.
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Artist: George Biddle
Portrait of Helene Sardeau (The Artist’s Wife)
By George Biddle
Located in Los Angeles, CA
(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan)
Fresco, 20 x 16 inches unframed, 22 x 18 inch...
Category
1930s American Modern George Biddle Art
Materials
Plaster, Mixed Media
original lithograph
By George Biddle
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph is from the rare 1950 "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 1950 Spr...
Category
1950s George Biddle Art
Materials
Lithograph
Banana Grove
By George Biddle
Located in New York, NY
George Biddle (1885-1973), Banana Grove, lithograph, 1928. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil [also annotated in the plate “Biddle/1928, lower right “47). References: Pennigar 81, Trotter 47. In excellent condition, the full sheet, on cream wove BFK RIVES paper, with their (partial) watermark. 12 1/2 x 9, the sheet 20 x 16, archival mounting (non attached mylar hinging between acid free board, glassine cover).
A fine fresh rich impression in pristine condition.
After Groton, Harvard College...
Category
1920s Realist George Biddle Art
Materials
Lithograph
Goat Herder's Wife
By George Biddle
Located in New York, NY
George Biddle (1885-1973), Goat Herder’s Wife, 1928, lithograph, signed in pencil lower right and titled and numbered (64/100) in pencil lower left margin [with the inscription ”Bidd...
Category
1920s Realist George Biddle Art
Materials
Lithograph
Hombre! Que Sin Vergeunza!
By George Biddle
Located in New York, NY
George Biddle (1885-1973), Hombre! Que Sin Vergeunza!, 1928, lithograph, signed and dated in pencil lower right, titled and numbered lower left [also signed in plate lower left ”Biddle/1928/44]. References: Pennigar 78, Trotter 44. Edition 100. In excellent condition (never framed, without light or time staining), with wide margins, the full sheet, 9 3/4 x 13 3/4, the sheet 15 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches. Printed by George C. Miller. On cream wove paper with the FRANCE watermark. Archival mounting (mylar unattached mounting between acid-free board).
A fine, fresh impression, in pristine condition.
According to Pennigar the title translates roughly to “Buddy! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself!” The title refers to the composition: the well-groomed man with his foot up in the carriage passes a group of naked little boys...
Category
1920s American Realist George Biddle Art
Materials
Lithograph
Coffee Huskers
By George Biddle
Located in New York, NY
George Biddle (1885-1973), Coffee Huskers, 1928, lithograph, signed, titled and numbered [also inscribed ’43/Biddle/1928 in the plate]. Reference: Pennigar 77, Trotter 43. From the edition of 100, on Rives cream wove paper, with the Rives watermark. In excellent condition, probably never framed or matted, the full sheet, 13 1/4 x 9 3/4, the sheet 16 x 11 1/2 inches, archival mounting (mylar non-attached hinging between acid free boards glassine cover).
A fine black impression.
Biddle wrote of this lithograph, in 1943: “After scraping the tusche away…I worked back with a pensil (sic) and again with diamond. This all adds to the richness of texture and color.” This work produces a very sophisticated lithographic look, akin in some ways to drypoint work in etching.
After Groton, Harvard College and Harvard Law (and several breakdowns) Biddle concluded that a conventional career in law was not for him; he decided on art, went to Paris, worked with Mary Cassatt and familiarized himself with modernist currents in art (as well as more traditional European art).
After serving in WWI, and the dissolution of his marriage, he became interested in working outside of the European tradition (although his travels continued to include Europe, and he spent a period working under the influence of Jules Pascin in Paris in the mid-‘20’s). Coffee Huskers, like many of the Mexican and Haitian prints...
Category
1920s American Realist George Biddle Art
Materials
Lithograph
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Selected Museums
Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario The Art Institute of Chicago Atlanta Botanical Garden Brooklyn Museum
Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown Dallas Museum of Art
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Frye Art Museum, Seattle
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Richard L. Nelson Gallery, U.C. Davis, California The New York Public Library
Oakland Museum of California
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Phoenix Art Museum
Portland Art Museum, Oregon
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson University of California, Berkeley Art Museum
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ART In Embassies Program, U.S. Department of State
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Winter (Winter on the Hudson)
By George Biddle
Located in Los Angeles, CA
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Hooverville by Day (Colorado), 1940s Signed Oil Landscape Painting Neighborhood
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GEORGE BIDDLE (1885 - 1973)
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Polley Pulque! (Mexican beer like beverage that is cactus based from WPA era)
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An original lithograph signed, titled and numbered in pencil. This impression is #28 out of an edition of 50. Mexicans have been brewing pulque from the juice of cactus-like maguey plants for centuries, but the viscous, beer-like beverage fell out of favor starting in the 1970s as pulque got a bad reputation as a peasant's drink. The nutrient-rich drink is making a comeback among a new generation of Mexicans.
Born on January 24, 1885 in Philadelphia, George Biddle received his B.A. from Harvard where he then completed his doctorate in law. He received art instruction at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, at the Académie Julian in Paris and then in Munich. During the first world war, Biddle lived in Giverny (1915-16) where he painted outdoor nudes...
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1920s American Modern George Biddle Art
Materials
Lithograph
Grand Central Station NYC Modernism WPA Industrial Transportation Depression Era
By George Biddle
Located in New York, NY
Artist George Biddle (1885-1973) drew this 9 x 12 inch mixed media on paper, "Grand Central Station" in 1933. Depicting the waiting area in the great New York City transportation hub...
Category
1930s American Modern George Biddle Art
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The Expectant Thistles
By George Biddle
Located in New York, NY
George Biddle (1885-1973), The Expectant Thistles, 1928, lithograph, signed and dated in pencil lower right, titled and numbered in pencil lower left [also inscribed in the plate low...
Category
1920s American Realist George Biddle Art
Materials
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Industrial Scene
By George Biddle
Located in Los Angeles, CA
GEORGE BIDDLE
"INDUSTRIAL SCENE"
OIL ON CANVASBOARD, SIGNED
AMERICAN, C.1930
16 X 20 INCHES
George Biddle
1885-1973
George Biddle, sculptor, painter and graphic artist and illustrator was born in Philadelphia in 1885. Biddle's early academic schooling was "constantly at war with natural creative instincts, and was possibly the cause for his two early breakdowns, at sixteen, and again at twenty-three." Biddle got an A.B. and LL.D. degree from Harvard and at the time accepted that he, like other Biddle's before him would follow in the tradition of the famous Biddle family of lawyers. He passed the state bar exams at the age of twenty-six, and at the very same time, much to the chagrin of his family, "at last determined to become a painter" the war within was over.
He studied in Paris, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (two years) and Munich. Biddle also studied with Ole Nordmark. He stated "I gobbled up museums, French impressionism, cubism, futurism, the Old Masters; I copied Valequez in Madrid, Rubens in Munich; I fell under the spell of Mary Cassatt's' passion and integrity, and through her eyes I was influenced by Degas. I was desperately in earnest to overcome my late start."
The onset of the World War, in which Biddle served for two years, was another setback the artist had to overcome for he was already thirty-four and still a student. Undeterred Biddle turned at first to Europe then the tropics for inspiration and spent two years in Polynesia toiling with failed attempts at expressionistic painting. He then went to Paris to further experiment with stone and wood, and modeled in clay. He cut block prints and made designs for marquetry, embroidery, stitch work and pottery.
Of those years that he regarded as unhappy, he wrote in his autobiography: "I began to feel how different from our own is the French mentality; and I realized how actually different in motivation and content is our own best American art." He returned to America in 1922 at the age of thirty-seven. In the early summer of 1930, he traveled to Charleston, South Carolina and made ink and watercolor sketches that he later transformed into oil paintings and lithographs.
During the mid thirties Biddle settled in Croton-on-Hudson with his second wife where he remained for the rest of his life. Biddle used his friendship with Franklin Roosevelt to initiate the ambitious Federal Art Project, later known as the W.P.A., that employed artists of all sorts. Biddle completed murals for the New Brunswick, NJ, post office; Department of Justice...
Category
1930s American Modern George Biddle Art
Materials
Oil
George Biddle art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic George Biddle art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by George Biddle in lithograph, mixed media, plaster and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large George Biddle art, so small editions measuring 9 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Fred Nagler, Samuel Chamberlain, and Bernard Brussel-Smith. George Biddle art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $50 and tops out at $12,500, while the average work can sell for $300.