George Brant Bridgman was born in 1864 in the province of Ontario, Canada. Raised in Toronto, Bridgman studied at the Ontario School of Art before moving to Paris in 1883 to become a student of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts. There he focused particularly on figure drawing using charcoal. He later worked with Gustave Boulanger and settled in New York in 1889, where he spent the remainder of his life.

Constructive Anatomy - Page 184 (Flickr)

Art Instruction

From 1898 to 1900 and again from 1903 to 1943, Bridgman taught figure drawing at the Art Students League in New York. He conveyed his knowledge of anatomy by reducing the human form to geometric shapes and advocated that students master form before color.

Students and Influence

It is said that he taught approximately 70,000 students during his career. Among them were notable artists such as Gifford Beal, Will Eisner, Andrew Loomis, Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock and Norman Rockwell. Rockwell described Bridgman in his memoirs as a passionate instructor who came to class in a suit yet appeared disheveled, using a skeleton model to explain anatomy with great enthusiasm.^【1】

Publications and Artistic Contributions

Bridgman authored numerous books on anatomy and figure drawing that are still in use today. His work Bridgman’s Complete Guide to Drawing from Life contains over a thousand anatomical drawings. Book of a Hundred Hands reflects his particular interest in drawing hands. In the introductory texts of his books, he references Renaissance masters and draws on observations made at the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Constructive Anatomy - Page 184 (Flickr)

Personal Life and Legacy

Information about his private life is limited; references in the dedications of his books indicate he had a wife, a daughter and a grandson. After Bridgman’s death in New York in 1943, his position at the Art Students League was taken over by his student Robert Beverly Hale. The Norman Rockwell Museum houses many of the anatomical drawings and large-scale figure studies Bridgman used in his classes.