Beets, Carrots, Radishes
Date1941
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 12 1/8 × 18 3/16 inches (30.8 × 46.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Ronald J. Strahan in honor of Muriel Barrow Bell and Malcom Bell, Jr.
Object number1996.15
On View
On viewTerms
CopyrightThe images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextGeorge Biddle was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, later returning to the United States to further his artistic education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He was known not only as a painter, but as a sculptor, illustrator, and writer as well. He was influential in the development of the Works Progress Administration, which employed over 5,000 artists under the Federal Art Project to produce art during the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had been his childhood friend and gave credence to Biddle’s idea of a government-sponsored mural and arts program.
Biddle is often classified as a painter of the American Scene, a style that rejected city subject matter in favor of depictions of rural life in America. It was especially popular during the 1930s and 1940s as the country reeled from the Great Depression and artists returned to bucolic scenes of country life. The simple basket of vegetables evokes the agrarian lifestyle as bountiful and fulfilling.