Lot 73
George Biddle
American, (1885-1973)
Bull and Calf, 1937
lithograph
Signed and dated lower right.
Biography from the Archives of askART: George Biddle's autobiography of 1939, An American Artist's Story, is the main source for any study of the artist. Most of Biddle's tale involves Depression-era, American Scene mural painting, for which Biddle was personally responsible, by suggesting a government-sponsored program to his old friend and classmate Franklin D. Roosevelt. Born on January 24, 1885 in Philadelphia, 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 such as Back of a Nude with Parasol (Eleanor and Irv Welling) and Summer 1919 in an impressionist manner. During this last wave of American expatriate painters at Giverny, Biddle was clearly influenced by Frederick Frieseke, as he explained (Biddle, 1939, p. 149): "Long summers I spent in Giverny near my friend Fred Frieseke, painting in the good plein air, impressionist tradition. Frieseke had a clear palette. I fell into it as a duck takes to water, after the mud of Munich, Julien's [sic] and the Pennsylvania Academy." Biddle added that one could see Monet "over his garden wall;" he knew Louis Ritman, and mentioned three other influential figures: Adolphe Borie (on whom he wrote a monograph in 1937), Degas, and Mary Cassatt. He even met Rodin.
Captain George Biddle served in the G2 Section of the First Army Corps during the war, was discharged in April 1919, and traveled clear to Tahiti to erase the memories of war and to find peace (1920-22). There he explored various media: wood and stone sculpture, wood block prints and even marquetry. The Pennsylvania Academy has his painting Tahitians from that trip, which reflects Gauguin's influence in the outlining of forms — here almost a cloisonnisme, while the human figures have a statuesque massiveness. There is no trace of the accidental lighting in the Frieseke-inspired taches of sunlight of the earlier period.
Biddle returned to America, this time to New York City and continued with sculpture, but soon he was back in Paris. That was during an exciting decade of American expatriatism — when even some bohemians were well off financially and there was plenty of intellectual and aesthetic stimulation, as Brancusi, Zadkine, Marie Laurencin, Léger, and Chagall met in the café crowd. Biddle visited Gertrude Stein's salon, met James Joyce, Marsden Hartley, and other stars of modernism. He dropped in on Cassatt in January 1926, five months before her death. She still had praise for Degas, and wondered what the world was coming to when such art as Laurencin's was widely accepted. In April, John Singer Sargent dies in his sleep — another great American expatriate who witnessed the flowering of impressionism. American art had passed beyond impressionism and Biddle would soon be a leader in the promotion of a dynamic national school of mural art. Biddle's A Woman with a Letter (1933), which recalls both Raphael Soyer and Charles Demuth, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His own murals include Society Freed through Justice in the Justice Department (1936; now in the University of Maryland), American Revolutionary scenes in the New Brunswick, New Jersey Post Office (1939), two large panels in the Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro (1942) and two murals for the Supreme Court Building in Mexico City (1944). The Whitney Museum of American Art has Biddle's Winter in Tortilla Flat (1941). He died at Croton-on-Hudson, New York in 1973.
Sources:
Biddle, George. An American Artist's Story. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1939; Boswell, Peyton Jr. Modern American Painting. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1940, pp. 95-96; Saint-Gaudens, Homer. The American Artist and His Times. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1941, pp. 250, 275-276; Gruskin, Alan D. Painting in the U.S.A. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1946, p. 158; Pagano, Grace. The Encyclopaedia Britannica Collection of Contemporary American Painting. Chicago: 1946, cat. no. 7; Baigell, Matthew. The American Scene: American Painting in the 1930's. New York: Praeger, 1974, pp. 46, 51, 70; Contreras, Belisario R. Tradition and Innovation in New Deal Art. London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1983; Park, Marlene and Gerald E. Markowitz, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984, pp. 218, 234; Zellman, 1987, p. 805; Preato, Robert R. and Sandra L. Langer. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: Transformations in the Modern American Mode 1885-1945. New York: Grand Central Art Galleries, 1988, pp. 44-45, 80; Gerdts, 1993, pp. 206-208, 214.
Submitted by Michael Preston Worley, Ph.D.
- Dimensions: 13"H x 20"W
- Medium: lithograph
Accepted Forms of Payment:
American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Money Order / Cashiers Check, Personal Check, Visa, Wire Transfer
Shipping
Professional in house shipping services are available for items. Large and or fragile items will require a third party shipper. Shipping costs will include carrier fees, handling, and insurance. It can take up to 3 - 4 weeks for a shipping invoice to be sent. A low bid purchase price does not mean shipping costs will be any less. The size and weight of a package will impact the cost that the carrier charges. Multiple items will impact the cost of handling. Items that are of high value will require more insurance. Contact Ripley Auctions if you would like a shipping estimate before the auction. Some items may require a third-party shipper. Please let the office know if you would like to pick up your winning bid or arrange your own shipping.
Ripley Auctions
You agree to pay a buyer's premium of 25% and any applicable taxes and shipping.
View full terms and conditions
| From: | To: | Increments: |
|---|---|---|
| $0 | $99 | $10 |
| $100 | $199 | $20 |
| $200 | $499 | $25 |
| $500 | $999 | $50 |
| $1,000 | $2,999 | $100 |
| $3,000 | $4,999 | $200 |
| $5,000 | $9,999 | $500 |
| $10,000 | $29,999 | $1,000 |
| $30,000 + | $2,500 |