George Biddle, 1885-1973

Shot by Bandits, ( 1928-1929, Mexico )

Oil on canvas

25.0 x 30.0 in. / 63.5 x 76.20 cm.

Signed & dated, lower left: Biddle, 1929

Inscribed verso:

Indian Woman Mourning For Her Dying Soldier

Shot By The Tehuantepec Bandits April 1928 

Provenance

Collection of George Biddle & his estate

Michael Biddle ( his son )

D. Wigmore Gallery, New York City

Fred R. Kline Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Private Collection and Estate, Santa Fe

By descent in the family

Fred R. Kline Gallery

Private Collection, Texas

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 p. 339. Thames & Hudson, 2002.

Exhibited

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

1997-98: "George Biddle: Seven Paintings from Mexico 1928-29", Fred R. Kline Gallery, Santa Fe

Note

Shot by Bandits, one of Biddle's acclaimed 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 famous 1933 letter to his friend President Franklin D. Roosevelt which proposed federally-funded mural and easel painting programs in the United States.

Biddle's ideas, acknowledged publically by Roosevelt, ultimately led to the formation of WPA arts programs during the Depression-era.

Sold to a distinguished private collection