In Memoriam: Sacco and Vanzetti
Date1930
Artist
George Biddle
(American painter, printmaker, sculptor, 1885–1973)
MediumLithograph
Dimensionscomposition: 19 1/8 × 13 1/16 in. (48.6 × 33.2 cm)
sheet: 23 × 15 15/16 in. (58.4 × 40.5 cm)
sheet: 23 × 15 15/16 in. (58.4 × 40.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1991
Object number1991-36
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPRINT
Label TextThis print reveals Biddle's poignant response to one of the most notorious events of the early 20th century: the trial, conviction, and execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The two, accused of murder, maintained their innocence but were convicted on what is judged today as an extremely thin body of evidence, buttressed by widespread fears of communism and immigrant populations in the United States. Biddle portrays the pair nestled in a peaceful, protective cocoon. Biddle, like John Sloan and William Gropper, was famous for producing work that expressed the human condition. The artist inscribed this print to Van Wyck Brooks, Sloan's first biographer.
