George Biddle, 1885-1973

Shot by Bandits, 1928-1929, Mexico

Inscribed verso:

Indian Woman Mourning For Her Dying Soldier

Shot By The Tehuantepec Bandits April 1928 

Oil on canvas  

25.0 x 30.0 in. / 63.5 x 76.20 cm.

Signed & dated, lower left: Biddle, 1929

Published:

*James Oles.  South of the Border, Mexico in the American Imagination 1914-47.  Exhibition catalogue; Illustrated p. 108. Smithsonian Press, 1993.

*Frances K. Pohl. Framing America: A Social History of American Art. Illustrated. Thames & Hudson, 2002.

Exhibited:

1993-94, “South of the Border, Mexico in the American Imagination 1914-47”.  Venues: Yale, Phoenix, New Orleans, Monterrey, Mex.

Provenance:

Collection of George Biddle & his estate, to his son Michael Biddle, to D. Wigmore Gallery, to Fred R. Kline Gallery, to Private Collection and Private Estate, to Fred R. Kline Gallery.

Note: “Shot by Bandits”, one of Biddle's great masterpieces, is from an important series of paintings made from the artist's travels in Mexico with Diego Rivera, 1928-29.  This experience in Mexico, which included study of the Mexican muralists, became the catalyst for Biddle’s ideas (presented in a famous 1933 letter sent to his friend President Franklin D. Roosevelt) that sparked the formation of the Depression Era’s WPA mural and easel painting programs.