Guy Carleton Wiggins was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 who became famous for his paintings of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

's snowy streets, landmarks and towering skyscrapers during winter. In 1883 the young Wiggins was born into an artistic family; his father Carleton Wiggins

Carleton Wiggins

Carleton Wiggins was an American landscape and cattle painter. He was born in Orange Co., N. Y., and studied in New York at the National Academy of Design and with George Inness, and in Paris, and settled in New York. His landscape were executed in broad flowing lines, with a rich low-toned...

 was an accomplished artist who gave his son his first training as a painter. Later he enrolled in architectural

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 school, but changed direction by entering the National Academy of Design

National Academy of Design

The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...

 to study painting. His teachers at the academy were William Merritt Chase

William Merritt Chase

William Merritt Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.- Early life and training :He was born in Williamsburg , Indiana, to the family...

 and Robert Henri

Robert Henri

Robert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :...

.

He was born in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 and made his residence in New York City, a city which often provided subjects for his paintings, as The Metropolitan Tower (Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

, New York); Washington Square in Winter (Richmond Art Museum

Richmond Art Museum

The Richmond Art Museum was founded in 1898 as the Art Association of Richmond, Indiana. Artist John Elwood Bundy was instrumental in the founding.- Permanent Collection :...

, Indiana); Columbia Circle, Winter (National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...

, Washington); and Riverside Drive (1915).

Throughout Wiggins' career, he painted in an impressionistic

Impressionism

Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

 style, as may be seen especially in Berkshire Hills, June (Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....

). 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 Lyme Art Colony of Old Lyme, Connecticut

Old Lyme, Connecticut

Old Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Main Street of the town is a historic district. The town has long been a popular summer resort and artists' colony...

, and painted alongside his father, Childe Hassam

Childe Hassam

Frederick Childe Hassam was a prolific American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums...

 and Frank Vincent DuMond. Wiggins taught art in New York and Connecticut and enjoyed a long and successful career as a painter. He died in St. Augustine, Florida

St. Augustine, Florida

St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...

 in 1962.

Awards

• Bronze Medal, Harris Prize, Art Institute of Chicago 1917
• Prize, Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts
• Award, Salmagundi Club
• Award, Art Club of Philadelphia
  Art Club of Philadelphia
  The Art Club of Philadelphia, often called the Philadelphia Art Club, was a club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded on February 7, 1887, to advance the arts...
  
  

External links

• The New York Scene - Rehs Galleries' exhibition of works by Guy C. Wiggins.
• Wiggins oil painting "Winter at the Plaza" in Swann Galleries Auction catalogue
• 'A Family of Painters is Having Its Moment', Ann Farmer, The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  , 6 June 2011