Guy C. Wiggins
{{Short description|American painter}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Guy C. Wiggins
| image = Guy C. Wiggins.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Guy C. Wiggins, c. 1910
| birth_name =
| birth_date = February 23, 1883
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
| death_date = April 25, 1962 (aged 79)
| death_place = St. Augustine, Florida, U.S.
| death_cause =
| resting_place = Old Lyme, Connecticut, U.S.
| occupation = Painter
| spouse = Dolores Gaxton
| children = 2 sons, 1 daughter
}}
Guy Carleton Wiggins NA (February 23, 1883 – April 25, 1962) was an American impressionist painter. He was the president of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, and a member of the Old Lyme Art Colony. He did many paintings of New York City's snowy streets, landmarks and towering skyscrapers during winter.
Early life
Wiggins was born on February 23, 1883, in Brooklyn.{{cite news |title=Old Lyme Artist Dies At Age 79 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/371246194/?terms=%22Guy%2BWiggins%22 |access-date=November 17, 2018 |work=Hartford Courant |date=April 27, 1962|page=8|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }} His father Carleton Wiggins was an accomplished artist who gave his son his first training as a painter. He attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, the Art Students League of New York, and the National Academy of Design.
Career
Wiggins often painted scenes of New York City, as evident in The Metropolitan Tower (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); Washington Square in Winter (Richmond Art Museum, Indiana); Columbia Circle, Winter (National Gallery of Art, Washington); and Riverside Drive (1915).
File:Brooklyn Museum - June, Berkshire Hills - Guy C. Wiggins - overall.jpg]]
Wiggins painted in an impressionistic style,{{cite book |last1=Lowrey |first1=Carol |title=A Legacy of Art: Paintings and Sculptures by Artist Life Members of the National Arts Club |date=2007 |publisher=National Arts Club |location=New York |isbn=9780615154992 |oclc=227004579 |page=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QkgvGYj34UMC&q=Guy+C.+Wiggins&pg=PA33}} as may be seen especially in Berkshire Hills, June (Brooklyn Museum). He traveled New England painting streams, fields and woodlands capturing on canvas the various seasons of the year. He became one of the youngest members of the Old Lyme Art Colony of Old Lyme, Connecticut, and painted alongside his father, Carleton, Childe Hassam, and Frank Vincent DuMond. Wiggins began teaching art in Essex, Connecticut, in 1937.{{cite web |title=Guy Wiggins |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/guy-wiggins-5383 |website=Smithsonian American Art Museum |access-date=November 18, 2018}} He did a portrait of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and gave it to the White House in 1959.{{cite news |title=Necrology |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/214234517/?terms=%22Guy%2BWiggins%22 |access-date=November 18, 2018 |work=The Town Talk |date=April 26, 1962|page=20|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }}{{cite news |title=Deaths Around the Nation: Guy Wiggins |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/98625111/?terms=%22Guy%2BWiggins%22 |access-date=November 18, 2018 |work=Detroit Free Press |date=May 11, 1962|page=36|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }}
Wiggins served as the president of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts. He was a member of the National Academy of Design, the New Haven Paint and Clay Club, and the Lyme Art Association. He won the Flagg Prize, the Cooper Prize and the Atheneum Prize from the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts; the Harris Medal from the Art Institute of Chicago; the Turnbull Prize and the Isidor Prize from the Salmagundi Club; and the J. Francis Murphy Memorial Prize from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Personal life, death and legacy
Wiggins married first Dorothy Johnson{{cite web |title=Guy Wiggins Obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/theday/name/guy-wiggins-obituary?id=9963174 |website=Legacy.com |access-date=February 7, 2022}} and later Dolores Gaxiola.{{cite news |title=Mrs. D.G. Hughes a Bride; Sister of William Gaxton Wed to Guy Wiggins, the Artist |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/12/24/88325823.html?pageNumber=13 |access-date=February 7, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=December 24, 1945}} With Dorothy he had two sons, Carleton Wiggins and Guy Arthur Wiggins, and a daughter, Dorothy Gibson. Wiggins resided in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and wintered in St. Augustine, Florida.{{cite news |title=Guy Wiggins |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/457341482/?terms=%22Guy%2BWiggins%22 |access-date=November 18, 2018 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |date=April 26, 1962|page=31|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }} Wiggins died in 1962 while on vacation in St. Augustine, Florida, aged 80.{{cite news |title=Guy Wiggins |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/456915740/?terms=%22Guy%2BWiggins%22 |access-date=November 17, 2018 |work=Daily News|location=New York City |date=April 26, 1962|page=44|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }} His body was returned home to Connecticut and he was buried in Old Lyme. His work can be seen in several major museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago,{{cite web |title=Guy Carleton Wiggins |url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/28543/guy-carleton-wiggins |website=Art Institute of Chicago |date=1883 |access-date=November 18, 2018}} Brooklyn Museum,{{cite web |title=Guy Wiggins |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/artists/775/objects |website=Brooklyn Museum |access-date=November 18, 2018}} and Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Wiggins's son, Guy Arthur Wiggins (1920-2020),{{cite web| url = https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theday/obituary.aspx%3fn=guy-wiggins&pid=197018981| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201101140749/https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theday/obituary.aspx?n=guy-wiggins&pid=197018981| archive-date = 2020-11-01| title = Guy Wiggins Obituary (2020) - The Day| website = Legacy.com}} a painter, married, in 1959, to Dorothy Gittinger (née) Palmer. The couple remained wed for 61 years until his death in 2020 at age 100. They had three children, all boys, including his wife's son by her previous marriage whom Wiggins adopted.{{cite news |last1=Farmer |first1=Ann |title=A Family of Painters Is Having Its Moment |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/nyregion/the-wiggins-family-of-painters-is-having-a-moment.html?hp |access-date=November 18, 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=June 6, 2011}}
In Popular Culture
The painting "Lower Fifth Ave. During The Day" was the subject of a restoration by Julian Baumgartner on the YouTube Channel Baumgartner Restoration.Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211209/-M49_lVAHpw Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190214042127/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M49_lVAHpw&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M49_lVAHpw| title = The Conservation of Guy Wiggins - Episode 1: "The Work Before The Work" | website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}} The work was previously believed to be untitled, but during the restoration the true title was found painted on the verso after a layer of canvas from a previous restoration was removed.Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211209/ZtxeFgmDc9A Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190714124057/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtxeFgmDc9A&list=PLoZ-LEVLUe6b8NamywcV2pai_pqVGn5zs&index=10&t=0s Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtxeFgmDc9A| title = The Conservation of Guy Wiggins - Episode 3: "On Structural Issues" | website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}
The painting "Old Trinity, New York Winter" was the subject of a segment on the PBS program Antiques Roadshow in 2008.{{Citation|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/appraisals/1930-guy-wiggins-old-trinity-new-york-winter-oil/ |title=1930 Guy Wiggins 'Old Trinity, New York Winter' Oil"|website=Antiques Roadshow}} The owner said her father had purchased the painting in the late 1960s for $2500. An appraiser suggested the artwork would fetch between $50,000 and $80,000 at auction.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.guycwiggins.com/ Official Site Virtual Catalogue Raisonné the Complete Works of Guy C. Wiggins.]
- [http://www.rehs.com/guy_c_wiggins_the_new_york_scene.html The New York Scene] – Rehs Galleries' exhibition of works by Guy C. Wiggins.
- [http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2216+++++189+&refno=++631988&saletype= Wiggins oil painting "Winter at the Plaza" in Swann Galleries Auction catalogue]
- [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/field/subjec/searchterm/Wiggins,%20Guy%20C.%20(Guy%20Carleton),%201883-1962%20--%20Exhibitions/mode/exact Two 1920's Guy Wiggins exhibition catalogs] from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries
{{commons category|Guy C. Wiggins}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiggins, Guy C.}}
Category:Students of Robert Henri
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:American male painters
Category:Painters from Brooklyn
Category:Painters from Connecticut
Category:People from Old Lyme, Connecticut
Category:People from Essex, Connecticut
Category:National Academy of Design alumni