George Biddle (U.S.A. 1885 - 1973)

George Biddle was an American artist hailing from Philadelphia, who created works on paper that were both powerful and laden with message.  Biddle was from an affluent Philadelphia family and went to school with Franklin Roosevelt and after Groton, studied law at Harvard.  However, art was his true passion and prior to World War I he arrived in Paris to study at the famed and oft-mentioned, Academie Julian.  If his works seem to owe something to the heritage of German printmakers, you would be right.  He studied printmaking in Madrid but perhaps more importantly his printmaking studies in Munich clearly left a massive aesthetic mark.   In the twenties he traveled in Mexico with Diego Rivera, and by the time of the Great Depression was very focused on social art and art with message. 

I mentioned Biddle's relationship with Roosevelt because, through their friendship developed during their years at Groton, they maintained contact, and during Roosevelt administration, Biddle was one of the founding members of the Federal Art Project.  This idea doubtless came from what he saw in Mexico in the previous decade, and, Biddle himself was an active artist in the WPA. 

Biddle's etchings, drypoints and lithographs make an exhilirating impression.  His breadth and freedom of style, together with a degree of elegance found rarely in a man who was fascinated by the natural world and the social world as well.  His prints embody this joy of life without spoiling everything by excessive decoration or sentimentality.  He has, too, a rare sense of appropriateness in scale, which seems to me to be a distinct influence of the German aesthetic.  His images capture people as well as animals with shading and strong line, and his echoes of details are refined.  When he does use colour, it is glowing and rich but it is also clear, that his preference was for shade as opposed to sweeping gestures of colour.  

 Throughout his work, is the feeling of strong and subtle influence of a life well lived and one that was experienced.  He brings together these disparate interests and somehow makes them seem to belong together.  His works when seen as a whole are varied but always seem to have some theme that runs through them.  One thing I find with many American artists, is the preference they have for small sensations over generous emotions and for grace over awkwardness.  In the case of Biddle, a man who was able to achieve manner over mannerism.