George Biddle (1885-1973) was an American painter, muralist and lithographer known for his social realism and combat art. He was also a childhood friend to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and played a major part in establishing the Federal Art Project, which employed artists under the Works Progress Administration. Biddle was born into a prestigious family in Philadelphia. He earned a Harvard law degree and was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in 1911, but abruptly changed careers to study art. And so, he left for Paris to attend the Académie Julian. Biddle would return to Philadelphia a year later and attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, then would leave for Europe again to study printmaking under Frederick Carl Frieseke during summer. After serving in World War I, he stayed in Tahiti to paint and experiment with many print techniques. Upon returning to the United States, Biddle displayed his works at well-known galleries in New York. In 1928, Biddle alongside Diego Rivera took a trip to Mexico, and was inspired by the political activism from the Mexican muralists and wanted to take the tradition home. He contacted President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 to propose a government program that would support mural painting. The Federal Art Project came to be, providing funds for muralists and artists working in other medias. He would create murals nationally and internationally for the next two decades, most notably for the National Library of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro and the Supreme Court building in Mexico City. Biddle completed the ambitious, multi-panel mural for the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. in 1936, called the "Society Freed Through Justice." He was also commissioned to create and chair the War Department Advisory Committee that would send artists to the frontlines during World War II. He would travel alongside his unit to Europe and Africa, making watercolors and drawings of what they saw. He was also hired by Look magazine in 1946 as an artist correspondent to the Nuremberg trials. Biddle painted some of the most notorious Nazi leaders, many of which were sentenced to death. In 1950, President Harry Truman appointed Biddle to the Fine Arts Commission, then in 1951, Biddle received a professorship at the American Academy in Rome.
