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.
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...
Plaster, Mixed Media
$1,600
H 21 in W 8.5 in
"Don't Cry Long" Abstracted and Distorted Self-Portrait, One Crying Eye
Located in Detroit, MI
"Don't Cry Long" is a self-portrait of the artist and an unusual one at that in which the artist portrays herself shedding tears. Perhaps it is an expression of some grief experienced by Ms. Woodlock, but it also admonishes her to not "Cry Long" while at the same time poking fun because of her elongated face and the one lone "long" tear tracing a pattern down her face. In addition to self-portraits, Ethelyn painted commissioned portraits. In this painting her head is cocked and her famous bangs hang down her forehead. Compare two self-portraits, “Up From Under”, and “M’Eyes" to "Don't Cry Long." The major differences are the close facial view and the brilliant blood red paint that fills the entire canvas. This painting is included in the book, "Dreams Have Wings: An Artist's Journey into Magic and Mystery" printed in the United States, 1985. She describes "Don't Cry Long" as showing how funny looking we are, if we cry too long. Ethelyn Woodlock...
Oil, Masonite
$3,950
H 20 in W 18 in D 2 in
"Georgia Moonshiner, c. 1935" by Athos Menaboni (1895-1990) American WPA Era Oil
Located in Yardley, PA
A fantastic WPA-era painting of a Georgia moonshiner by famed Italian-American artist Athos Menaboni (1895-1990). This work depicts an older man sporting a brown hat, brown jacket, ...
Masonite, Oil
$6,500
H 32 in W 32 in D 2.75 in
"The Champ, 1942" Joe Louis "Brown Bomber" Boxer Portrait Ex-Museum Oil Signed
Located in Yardley, PA
“The Champ, 1942” by Theodore Fried (1902-1980) This important portrait by Hungarian-American artist Theodore Fried depicts the legendary boxer Joe Louis aka “The Brown Bomber” and ...
Canvas, Oil, Board
$950
H 19 in W 15 in D 1.5 in
Eunice Katz Modernist Female Portrait Mid-Century Acrylic Painting
By Eunice Katz
Located in Denver, CO
A striking original modernist portrait by American artist Eunice Katz (1927–2008), this expressive mid-century acrylic painting captures the quiet intensity and psychological depth t...
Acrylic
Portrait of a Female Nude
Located in Astoria, NY
Leo Feldman (American, XX), Portrait of a Female Nude Figure, Oil on Canvas, signed on top edge and verso, unframed. 30" H x 24" W. Provenance: From the Allen Tucker Memorial Colle...
Canvas, Oil
Portrait of a Hopeful Boy
Located in San Francisco, CA
It’s the hopeful, intelligent expression that grabs you. Especially in a boy framed by the evidence of abject poverty. How long can he endure? The artist, Roy Little, was described a...
Canvas, Oil
$2,600
H 29 in W 24 in D 1 in
Woman at Basin, Picasso Style Portrait of a Female Nude, American Modernist
By Leon Kelly
Located in Doylestown, PA
"Woman by Basin" by Philadelphia born modernist and surrealist painter Leon Kelly, is a framed and matted portrait of a female nude. The 22.5" x 17.75" mixed media on artist board i...
Mixed Media
untitled ( Civil Rights )
By Philip Evergood
Located in Miami, FL
Evergood is decades ahead of his time in shouting out against racial injustice. Painted in the late 1950's KKK is an important work. For Philip Evergood (born Philip Blashki), pain...
Oil
$5,000
H 30 in W 22 in
SALVADOR DE REGIL 1954 Portrait of Marian Virginia Schuster - Surrealist Artist
By Salvador De Regil
Located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Marian Schuster was 19 years old in 1954 and attended City College San Francisco where she studied Art. In the old school, Victorian, San Francisco, moneyed household that she was r...
Canvas, Oil
Black American Artist Douglas Staten
Located in San Francisco, CA
Really powerful, mid-century, modern portrait of a woman. It was painted by Douglas Staten who was a black artist from Indiana. There is not a lot of biographical information on him,...
Oil
$42,000
H 32 in W 37 in D 3 in
Side Show Barker - Original Modernist American Fair Scene Oil Painting
Located in Marco Island, FL
From the Michael Hall Collection, this is a great American scene showing the excitement of the fair. It depicts a time when men wore coats and ties and women had hats at the fair be...
Canvas, Oil
$9,950
H 32.5 in W 38.5 in D 1.75 in
Jenne Magafan Deserted Street, 1946 WPA-Era American Modernist Oil Painting
By Jenne Magafan
Located in Denver, CO
Painted in 1946, Deserted Street is a compelling example of Jenne Magafan's mature American Modernist vision, created during the years following her nationally recognized WPA mural p...
Oil
Winter (Winter on the Hudson)
By George Biddle
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This work is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Winter or Winter on the Hudson, 1927, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 36 x 36 inches, ...
Oil
Sold
H 22.5 in W 26.5 in D 1.5 in
Hooverville by Day (Colorado), 1940s Signed Oil Landscape Painting Neighborhood
By George Biddle
Located in Denver, CO
1940s oil on canvas painting by George Biddle (1885-1973) titled "Hooverville by Day (Colorado)". Signed and dated by the artist in the lower left corner, titled verso. Painting depi...
Canvas, Oil
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...
Oil