Guy Wiggins

American (1883-1962)

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1883, Guy Wiggins was the second in a three-generation family of painters. Wiggins’ early studies began under his father Carleton Wiggins (American, 1848-1932) and continued in his training as an architectural draftsman at the Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn. He later studied at the National Academy of Design under William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri.

Wiggins won early success when, at the age of twenty, his work was accepted into the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He received numerous awards and prizes from the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Salmagundi Club, Art Club of Philadelphia and most notably, the prestigious Norman Wait Bronze Medal from the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a member of the National Academy of Design, Boston Art Club, Salmagundi Club, Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts and was one of the foremost artists affiliated with the art colony in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Wiggins exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Corcoran Gallery, National Academy of Design, Salmagundi Club, Boston Art Club, Rhode Island School of Design, Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Lotos Club and Vose Galleries in Boston. His works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Florence Griswold Museum and San Diego Museum of Art, among others.