George Biddle, Tantina

After serving in WWI, Biddle needed to heal his mind and regain his voice as an artist. He traveled to Tahiti in 1920 and built a cottage in the village of Tautira, some thirty miles from the French colonial capital, Papeete. He lived on the island for twenty-three months, an experience he described in detail in his Tahitian Journal, published in 1968. In the two years he spent there, he produced forty-one paintings and many woodcuts, and branched into silverpoint, drypoint, linocut, watercolor, and sculpture.