Huntington Alum Emerges from History
One day an e-mail came into the Huntington School District's website. It concerned a member of Huntington's Class of 1932. It was a time so long ago that it sent the recipient scurrying to the district's archives to dig for information about a graduate who went on to make her mark in the world of art.
"I have been doing research on my friend, Catharina Baart Biddle," wrote Thomas A. O'Callaghan, Jr. Image Specialist for Spanish Art in the National Gallery of Art's Department of Image Collections in Washington, D.C. "Recently I discovered that she attended Huntington High School in the late 1920s and early 1930s. She was known as Kitty Baart back then."
Mr. O'Callaghan sent along the address of a website (www.catharinabaartbiddle.com) devoted entirely to the person he called a "remarkable alumna of Huntington High School."
"Catharina Baart Biddle was born Catharina Maria Cornelia Baart in a small village by the North Sea in the Netherlands," according to the website. "As a child she learned the special contrasts of light and shadow which have influenced Dutch painting from its beginnings. As a child she was inspired by Rembrandt and Van Gogh in the museums of Holland, and she made up her mind to become an artist herself."
Ms. Baart eventually found her way to Long Island as a 12-year old and later graduated from Huntington High School during a ceremony held in the auditorium on Tuesday, June 28, 1932 at 8:15 p.m. It was the school's 71st annual commencement. Second year Principal Robert L. Simpson presided over the event. Superintendent Robert K. Toaz presented the seniors with their diplomas.
During her years at Huntington High School, Ms. Baart participated in archery, volleyball, field hockey, basketball, the horseback riding club, art club, Masque (drama club), Arista (girls' honor society), Big Sister club, was the treasurer of the junior class and a member of the G.O. executive council as a senior.
In the section of the 1932 edition of The Huntingtonian, the Huntington High School yearbook, Ms. Baart's "worst offense" is listed as "studying;" She was "noted for" her "eye glasses;" her "disposition" was "coy;" and "20 Years Hence" she was expected to be "still studying." On page 61 of the yearbook, the Class of 1932 Royal Family is listed. Ms. Baart was picked as the "class artist."
The new grad went on to earn a pair of master of fine arts degrees, including one at George Washington University in the 1940s and another at American University in the 1980s. Ms. Baart was offered a teaching position at GWU, but declined in order to gain a more diversified artistic experience.
"She traveled widely in Europe and studied art in Paris and in southern France," according to the website devoted to Mrs. Baart Biddle. "She became acquainted with Dufy, Matisse and Picasso, meeting with them, visiting their studios and learning from each of them. She traveled to Greece and for a number of years lived and painted in North Africa, exploring and absorbing in both areas a classic past. In Libya, she discovered and unearthed in her own garden exceptional examples of Greek and Roman sculpture. She missed the freedom of thought and of the individual she had found in the United States, and decided she wanted - after searching to discover where she best belonged - to make the United States her home."
Mrs. Baart Biddle became a well-respected artist. The Washington Post said her "painting style is loose and energetic, full of color, ephemeral and refreshing."
The Huntington grad moved from New York to Washington, DC during World War II and worked in the education department of the National Gallery of Art. After traveling the world, she turned her sights on teaching public school children and taught in the Washington, DC school system from the late 1950s to 1974, working on every grade level.
She also maintained a list of private art students, among them was Warren E. Burger, who went on to serve as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. A scholarship was endowed in her name at American University in 2002. As a tribute to her husband, Mrs. Baart Biddle endowed the International Gallery at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
"Every artist has a special individuality and the artist's work should be evolving," Mrs. Baart Biddle once said. "To do the very best you can at a given moment, and to learn from it, that is the essence of my work."
After her first marriage ended in divorce, Ms. Baart married Livingston L. Biddle, Jr. in 1973. He wrote the legislation that created the National Council on the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts while serving on the staff of U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, a prep school and college friend. He was NEA chairman from 1977-81. He passed away in 2002 after a lifetime of philanthropy and promotion of the arts.
Mrs. Baart Biddle passed away at home on February 19, 2005 following a long battle with Parkinson's disease. She was 92 years old and was survived by two step-children and five grandchildren.