biographie de George BIDDLE (1885-1973)

Birth place: Philadelphia, PA

Death place: Croton-on-Hudson, NY

Addresses: Croton-on-Hudson, NY

Profession: Painter, muralist, sculptor, writer, critic, lecturer, graphic artist

Studied: Harvard Univ., B.A., 1908, L.L.B., 1911; PAFA; Académie Julian, Paris, 1911; Munich, 1914-15 with Prof. Heinemann; PAFA, 1912-13

Exhibited: PAFA, 1916-66; NAD, 1916-48; Corcoran Gal. Art, 1916-19, 1930-47, 1958 (solo); S.Indp.A., 1917, 1927, 1928, 1936; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1918; New York City Art Center, 1926; Am. Inst. Graphic, NY, 1927; Detroit Inst. Arts, 1928; AIC, 1932-33, 1936, 1942; Carnegie Inst., 1935, 1950 (solo); WFNY, 1939; John Herron Art Inst., 1943; Santa Barbara Mus. Art, 1944; Phila. Mus. Art, 1947; Brooklyn Mus., 1948; NYPL, 1940 (solo); Calif. Pal. Legion Honor, 1953 (solo); Univ. Southern Calif., 1955 (solo); RISD, 1961 (solo); Univ. Delaware, 1963; MMA; WMAA; BMFA; SFMA; San Diego FA Soc.; Los Angeles Mus. Art; Library Congress; retrospective of prints circulated by U.S. Information Agency in Japan, India, Italy and other European countries; Harco Gal., San Francisco, 1996 (solo); Salons of Am. Awards: Huntington Hartford Foundation fellowship, 1954; Edward MacDowell Colony art award, 1956; purchase prize, Brandeis Univ.

Member: Am. Soc. Painters, Gravers & Sculptors (vice pres., 1934); Nat. Soc. Mural Painters (pres., 1935); Mural Artists Guild (pres., 1937-38); Nat. Soc. Arts & Letters (vice pres., 1962); Soc. Am. Graphic Artists; Am. Artists Congress; Artists Union; Artists Equity; Inst. Arts and Letters; Woodstock Artists Assoc.; AIC.

Work: Mod. Mus. Art, Tokyo, Japan; Butler Inst. Am. Art, Youngstown, OH; Fogg Art Mus., Cambridge, MA; CGA; Walter E. Chrysler Collection; U.S.P.O., Brunswick, NJ; MMA; WMAA; MoMA; PAFA; PMA; BMFA; SFMA; San Diego FA Soc.; LACMA; LOC; NYPL; AIC; Newark Public Library; CPLH; Kaiser Friedrich's Mus., Berlin; Galeria d'Arte Moderna, Venice; John Herron Art Inst.; Denver AM; Dallas Mus. FA. Commissions: fresco & sculpture (with Helene Sardeau), Supreme Court Bldg., Mexico City; fresco, Nat. Library, Rio de Janiero, Brazil; murals, Justice Bldg., Washington, DC (now removed to the Univ. of Maryland).

Comments: Social realist painter. Pivotal figure in the creation of Federal Arts Programs during the Depression. In 1933 he wrote to his friend and former Harvard classmate, Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, urging him to implement a government project employing artists. Biddle's first federal mural commission, The Tenament," (c. 1935, now at Univ. of Maryland) for the Dept. of Justice Building in Wash., DC, sparked a controversy because of its "inartistic" depiction of poverty. Positions: teacher, various schools, including Colorado Springs FAC, 1936-37; chairman art advisory committee, War Dept., North Africa, 1943; art advisory committee, State Dept; member, Fine Arts Commission, 1950; member, Nat. Commission for Effective Congress. Publications: author, "An American Artist's Story" (1939); author & illustrator, "Adolphe Borie;" "Boardman Robinson;" "Green Island;" "Artist at War;" "George Biddle's war drawings," 1944; author & illustrator, "The Yes and No of Contemporary Art," 1957; author & illustrator, "Indian Impressions," 1960; author & illustrator, "Tahitian Journal," 1968; contributor, national magazines. He painted impressionist works while living in Giverny, 1915-16, and later traveled to Tahiti (residing there 1920-22) and Bermuda.

Sources: WW73; WW47; Baigell, Dictionary; 300 Years of American Art, vol. 2: 805; P & H Samuels, 44-45; Bruce Weber, The Giverny Luminists: Frieseke, Miller, and Their Circle, 18-19; American Scene Painting and Sculpture, 56 (w/repro.); Crotty, 91.