George Biddle
Encyclopedia
George Biddle was an American
artist
best known for his social realism
, combat art, and his strong advocacy of government-sponsored art projects. A native of Philadelphia, Biddle was a lawyer by training whose passion for art led him to abandon his original profession and travel the world to study and compose.
(where he was a classmate of Franklin D. Roosevelt
). He completed his undergraduate studies and later earned a law degree from Harvard
(1908 and 1911, respectively). He passed his bar examination
in Philadelphia.
Biddle's legal career was short-lived, however, and by the end of 1911 he had left the United States to study at the Académie Julian
in Paris
. In the next two years he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
. Returning to Europe in 1914, Biddle spent time in Munich
and Madrid
, studying printmaking in the Spanish capital, before trying his hand at impressionism
in France
. As he remembered, “I gobbled up museums, French Impressionism, cubism, futurism, and the old masters; I copied Velasquez in Madrid and Rubens in Munich….” In 1917, with the United States' entry into the First World War
, Biddle enlisted in the army
.
In the early interwar period Biddle continued his studies in far-flung locations such as Tahiti
, returned to France in 1924, and in 1928 went on a sketching trip through Mexico
with Diego Rivera
.
George Biddle was married three times, from 1917 to 1921 to Anne (Nancy) Coleman (* 1896), who in 1925 married Leland Harrison (1883-1951). From 1925 to Jane Belo, later known anthropologist Jane Belo Tannenbaum (* November 3, 1904, Dallas, Texas; d. April 3, 1968) and from 1930 to sculptor Hélène Sardeau (* July 7, 1899, Antwerp (Belgium); d. 1969). Their child, Michael John Biddle, was born on November 15, 1934.
In the 1930s, Biddle became a champion of social art and strongly advocated government funding for artistic endeavors. His correspondence with his former classmate (and recently elected president) Franklin Roosevelt. even contributed to the establishment of the Federal Art Project
, an arm of the Works Progress Administration
that produced several hundred thousand pieces of publicly-funded art. Biddle himself completed a mural titled The Tenement for the Justice Department building
in Washington, D.C.
and made sketches of the opera Porgy and Bess
during its late 1930s tour. His works were exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair
. During these years Biddle also wrote several books and taught at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
.
During World War II
, Biddle was appointed chairman of the United States Department of War
's Art Advisory Committee and served to recruit artists to that body. Biddle himself traveled through Algeria
, Tunisia
, Sicily
, and Italy
with the 3rd Infantry Division and produced works documenting that unit's activities. He wrote a book on his war travels: Artist at War Tunisia-Sicily-Italy, Viking Press, 1944. When the Art Advisory Committee was disbanded, he produced combat art for Life magazine
.
In 1950, Biddle was appointed to the United States Commission of Fine Arts
.
The scene and the message of the painting are very clear and realistic. Biddle must have painted a scene when he was out traveling the world during hard times for African Americans. “Biddle’s subject, reflecting the interest in portraying aspects of the American scene felt by many artists at this time, is drawn from his 1930 visit to Charleston”. He liked to capture scenes that were of the time and how people saw the world. Most of his paintings, lithographs, and drawings were of real events or portraits. These images told a message about what was going on in the world, whether it was in the US or in another country. The effects and techniques that were used help express the message that Biddle was trying to say about the time period for this culture. “The subjects Biddle depicted included portraits of his family and friends, scenes based on his extensive travels, commentaries on political and national events and reflections on the human condition”.
; the School of Paris and Cubism
during those early and exciting days when it first exploded on the world; Regionalism, the Mexican Mural Movement, and the New Deal Subsidy of Art”. He also was involved in the “post war currents of contemporary art”. Many of his works of art were contemporary. Another factor that contributed to Biddle’s artwork were his friendships with many great “painters, sculptors, and critics of the past generation and his life-long activity in behalf of fellow artists”. He borrowed many of the other artists' styles and turned them into his own by using different techniques and images to get a different effect. Biddle believed that everyone’s life should be influenced by every “fact with which one comes in contact, until one ceases to grow or is, actually dead”. This is the reason why Biddle became such a successful American artist; he had his own style, and expressed real actual events.
A further influence on Biddle was Mary Cassatt
. Biddle met Cassatt at the Académie Julian
in Paris
; she too was from Philadelphia. Cassatt helped to cultivate in Biddle an appreciation of the work of Degas. Some of Biddle’s prints reflected “the style of these two artists in their intimate, domestic subject matter”.
Biddle put in his “personal feelings—affection, humor, compassion, irony, social outrage—as well as his technical mastery of the lithographic medium” to “enliven his work”.
George Biddle achieved a lot of goals that helped other artists make their way. His work serves as a “kind of index to the many style and themes which occupied artists in the first half of the 20th century”. When Biddle volunteered to go to the war, it changed his whole life and how he saw the world. He got to travel the country and study the art of different cultures thus enriching the art that he would produce. Biddle captured scenes and people how they naturally occurred in life. “Catfish Row” is a good example of Biddle capturing people and objects in their natural state. “Rejecting the stale formulas of academism and critical of what he saw as a loss of articulate emotional expressionism in much of modernist art, Biddle grappled with his own artistic identity throughout his life”.
Archives of American Art
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
best known for his social realism
Social realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
, combat art, and his strong advocacy of government-sponsored art projects. A native of Philadelphia, Biddle was a lawyer by training whose passion for art led him to abandon his original profession and travel the world to study and compose.
Education
Born to an established Philadelphia family, Biddle attended the elite Groton SchoolGroton School
Groton School is a private, Episcopal, college preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, U.S. It enrolls approximately 375 boys and girls, from the eighth through twelfth grades...
(where he was a classmate of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
). He completed his undergraduate studies and later earned a law degree from Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
(1908 and 1911, respectively). He passed his bar examination
Bar examination
A bar examination is an examination conducted at regular intervals to determine whether a candidate is qualified to practice law in a given jurisdiction.-Brazil:...
in Philadelphia.
Biddle's legal career was short-lived, however, and by the end of 1911 he had left the United States to study at the Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. In the next two years he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...
. Returning to Europe in 1914, Biddle spent time in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, studying printmaking in the Spanish capital, before trying his hand at impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. As he remembered, “I gobbled up museums, French Impressionism, cubism, futurism, and the old masters; I copied Velasquez in Madrid and Rubens in Munich….” In 1917, with the United States' entry into the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Biddle enlisted in the army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
.
In the early interwar period Biddle continued his studies in far-flung locations such as Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
, returned to France in 1924, and in 1928 went on a sketching trip through Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
with Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
.
George Biddle was married three times, from 1917 to 1921 to Anne (Nancy) Coleman (* 1896), who in 1925 married Leland Harrison (1883-1951). From 1925 to Jane Belo, later known anthropologist Jane Belo Tannenbaum (* November 3, 1904, Dallas, Texas; d. April 3, 1968) and from 1930 to sculptor Hélène Sardeau (* July 7, 1899, Antwerp (Belgium); d. 1969). Their child, Michael John Biddle, was born on November 15, 1934.
Career
Prior to his Mexican travels, Biddle had returned to the United States in 1927 and established a printing shop in New York, where he “began to explore the variety and richness of technique and expressionism possible in lithography”, a medium which he hoped would “popularize American art by making it better known to the American public”.In the 1930s, Biddle became a champion of social art and strongly advocated government funding for artistic endeavors. His correspondence with his former classmate (and recently elected president) Franklin Roosevelt. even contributed to the establishment of the Federal Art Project
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal Works Progress Administration Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists created...
, an arm of the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
that produced several hundred thousand pieces of publicly-funded art. Biddle himself completed a mural titled The Tenement for the Justice Department building
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and made sketches of the opera Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
during its late 1930s tour. His works were exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
. During these years Biddle also wrote several books and taught at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center is an arts center located just north of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. Located on the same city block are the American Numismatic Association and part of the campus of Colorado College....
.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Biddle was appointed chairman of the United States Department of War
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
's Art Advisory Committee and served to recruit artists to that body. Biddle himself traveled through Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
with the 3rd Infantry Division and produced works documenting that unit's activities. He wrote a book on his war travels: Artist at War Tunisia-Sicily-Italy, Viking Press, 1944. When the Art Advisory Committee was disbanded, he produced combat art for Life magazine
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
.
In 1950, Biddle was appointed to the United States Commission of Fine Arts
United States Commission of Fine Arts
The United States Commission of Fine Arts , established in 1910 by an act of Congress, is an advisory agency of the Federal government.The CFA is mandated to review and provide advice on "matters of design and aesthetics", involving federal projects and planning in Washington, D.C...
.
Catfish Row
Biddle painted a beautiful image called “Catfish Alley,” (later the name was changed to “Catfish Row” by American Artists Group when they published it). “Catfish Row” is a lithograph image. George Biddle uses many techniques on this painting which makes it more novel and attractive. The painting is in all black and white, the artist uses light and dark shading to give it a three-dimensional feel. The scene captured is of a group of individuals walking, sitting and playing outside their houses. In "Catfish Row" there is nothing about the image that is abnormal or fantasy. Atmospheric perspective is also used: the objects in the background are less detailed and almost blurry compared with the objects in the front of the painting. The overall spacing of the painting is crowded; almost every inch of the painting is used up with an object or person. The scene Biddle painted seems to take place in the evening; all of the adult figures in the image seem tired and ready to settle down for the night. The expressions on the figures' faces are exhausted from a day of work, but they have to keep an eye on the children out at play. The children look lively because it is cool and they get to play after school or working too. All the lines in the painting are choppy, but delicate and placed carefully. Biddle must have used quick strokes or a small tool to make the image look like it had been sandblasted or made on a rough surface.The scene and the message of the painting are very clear and realistic. Biddle must have painted a scene when he was out traveling the world during hard times for African Americans. “Biddle’s subject, reflecting the interest in portraying aspects of the American scene felt by many artists at this time, is drawn from his 1930 visit to Charleston”. He liked to capture scenes that were of the time and how people saw the world. Most of his paintings, lithographs, and drawings were of real events or portraits. These images told a message about what was going on in the world, whether it was in the US or in another country. The effects and techniques that were used help express the message that Biddle was trying to say about the time period for this culture. “The subjects Biddle depicted included portraits of his family and friends, scenes based on his extensive travels, commentaries on political and national events and reflections on the human condition”.
Style and influences
Some factors that contributed to Biddle’s artwork are the many art movements that he was involved in. Biddle was involved in “French Impressionism; the American Ashcan SchoolAshcan School
The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States during the early twentieth century, best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York's poorer neighborhoods. The movement grew out of a group...
; the School of Paris and Cubism
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
during those early and exciting days when it first exploded on the world; Regionalism, the Mexican Mural Movement, and the New Deal Subsidy of Art”. He also was involved in the “post war currents of contemporary art”. Many of his works of art were contemporary. Another factor that contributed to Biddle’s artwork were his friendships with many great “painters, sculptors, and critics of the past generation and his life-long activity in behalf of fellow artists”. He borrowed many of the other artists' styles and turned them into his own by using different techniques and images to get a different effect. Biddle believed that everyone’s life should be influenced by every “fact with which one comes in contact, until one ceases to grow or is, actually dead”. This is the reason why Biddle became such a successful American artist; he had his own style, and expressed real actual events.
A further influence on Biddle was Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
. Biddle met Cassatt at the Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
; she too was from Philadelphia. Cassatt helped to cultivate in Biddle an appreciation of the work of Degas. Some of Biddle’s prints reflected “the style of these two artists in their intimate, domestic subject matter”.
Biddle put in his “personal feelings—affection, humor, compassion, irony, social outrage—as well as his technical mastery of the lithographic medium” to “enliven his work”.
Conclusion
George Biddle achieved a lot of goals that helped other artists make their way. His work serves as a “kind of index to the many style and themes which occupied artists in the first half of the 20th century”. When Biddle volunteered to go to the war, it changed his whole life and how he saw the world. He got to travel the country and study the art of different cultures thus enriching the art that he would produce. Biddle captured scenes and people how they naturally occurred in life. “Catfish Row” is a good example of Biddle capturing people and objects in their natural state. “Rejecting the stale formulas of academism and critical of what he saw as a loss of articulate emotional expressionism in much of modernist art, Biddle grappled with his own artistic identity throughout his life”.
Books
- Green Island. Coward-McCann, New York 1930.
- Adolphe Borie. American Federation of Arts, Washington, D.C. 1937.
- An American Artist's Story. Littlem, Brown & Co., Boston 1939. (memoir)
- Artist at War. The Viking Press, New York 1944.
- George Biddle's War Drawings. The Hyperion Press, distributed by Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1944
- The Yes and No of Contemporary Art. An Artist's Evolution. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1957.
- Indian Impressions. The Orion Press, New York 1960.
- Tahitian Journal. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1968.
External links
- List of Biddle's Artworks in Museum Collections, World Wide Arts Resources.
- Columbus Museum of Art Web page on Biddle’s 1933 lithograph, Alabama Code (click on picture for larger image)
Archives of American Art
Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 16 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washington, D.C...