Oil on canvas, 1958, signed and dated at lower right, inscribed to verso, framed.

Stretcher size 25 x 10 3/8 in.; Frame dimensions 31 1/4 x 16 1/2 in.

From the Estate of the late Patricia J. Shaw, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Wright Auction, Modern & Contemporary Art, November 9, 2003.

Born in Philadelphia, George Biddle studied at Groton, Harvard, and Harvard Law School. By 1911, he enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris and furthered his studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Throughout his life, Biddle traveled to Europe, Tahiti, South America, Africa, and Asia, developing relationships with numerous artists including Fred Frieseke, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and Jules Pascin.


After serving in World War I, Biddle lived in a Polynesian village before establishing a studio in New York. In 1928, Biddle accompanied Diego River to Mexico Mexico, an experience that influenced his career as a social realist. At the invitation of American author DuBose Heyward, Biddle visited Charleston, South Carolina, in 1930. For two months, he sketched genre scenes and figure studies, many of which were published in Gershwin’s 1935 libretto to Porgy and Bess. During the Depression, Biddle championed the development of the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration. Biddle’s work is represented in the collections of such prestigious institutions as the Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum of Fine Art, among others.

Courtesy of The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina

Good estate condition.