Guy Carleton Wiggins, N.A.
(American, 1883-1962)

"Columbus Circle, New York", ca. 1915-1920

oil on canvas.
signed lower left, verso affixed with "Godel & Co. Fine Art, New York, New York" label.
Framed.
25-1/4" x 30-1/4", framed 36" x 40-1/2"

Provenance: Godel & Co. Fine Art, New York, New York; Private collection, Houston, Texas.

Notes: The son of an artist, Wiggins began to paint at a young age and received his earliest art training from his father. He initially enrolled in the architectural drawing program at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute before attending the National Academy of Design where he studied painting under William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri. Well versed in both French and American Impressionism, he began a series of partially plein air paintings of snowy New York scenes. Employing a cool color palette of icy blues, white, creams and grays with dashes of bolder hues for dramatic effect, and using thick, painterly brushstrokes, he created atmospheric images immediately beloved by critics and collectors alike. Wiggins would revisit the same scenes, depicting them at different times of the day or under different weather conditions. Immensely popular in the years before and just after WWI, his works sold quickly. By the age of 20, he had a work in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City - the youngest person at the time to receive such an honor.

Wiggins received numerous awards, honors and accolades during his lifetime. He was a member of the National Academy of Design, the Old Lyme Art Colony and served as the President of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts. In 1937, he moved to Essex, Connecticut and opened his own art school.