Lot Essay
The son of an acclaimed landscape painter Carleton Wiggins, Guy Wiggins was born in New York in 1883. After taking courses in drawing and architecture at the Brooklyn Polytechnical Institute, Wiggins studied painting under William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri at the National Academy of Design. Beginning his career at any early age, the artist received wide recognition and at the age of twenty was the youngest American artist to have a work acquired for the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1912.
The Flat Iron Building in Winter is an excellent example of the New York winter scenes which the artist began producing in the 1920s and for which he is best known today. Works such as this are rooted in the Ash Can School's predilection for images of urban life yet simultaneously reveal the interest in atmospheric effects and suggestive brushwork of Impressionism. Wiggins was most directly influenced by the paintings of Childe Hassam whose celebrated flag series of the mid-teens most certainly impressed him.
Built in 1902 by Daniel Burnham, the Flat Iron Building was one of the most photographed, painted and illustrated American buildings. Like the Brooklyn Bridge, it immediately became recognized as an American icon attracting the attention of numerous artists. With its unusual round corner and triangular shape, the Flat Iron Building garnered much interest and popularity which was further increased because of its prominent location at the intersection of the city's two main thoroughfares - Fifth Avenue and Broadway.
Guy Wiggins followed the lead of photography's main champion, Alfred Steiglitz, whose images of the Flat Iron Building from the winter of 1902-3 set the standard for future depictions of the building. Steiglitz's photographs, like Wiggins' The Flat Iron Building in Winter, are oriented vertically, composed from Madison Square and are often veiled under a fresh winter snow. This perspective - taken from street level head-on - heightened the soaring and 'dwarfing' qualities of this architectural marvel. As in most of Wiggins' New York pictures, cars and bundled up pedestrians crowd the snow covered streets.
A letter from Guy Wiggins, Jr. discussing the painting accompanies the lot.
The Flat Iron Building in Winter is an excellent example of the New York winter scenes which the artist began producing in the 1920s and for which he is best known today. Works such as this are rooted in the Ash Can School's predilection for images of urban life yet simultaneously reveal the interest in atmospheric effects and suggestive brushwork of Impressionism. Wiggins was most directly influenced by the paintings of Childe Hassam whose celebrated flag series of the mid-teens most certainly impressed him.
Built in 1902 by Daniel Burnham, the Flat Iron Building was one of the most photographed, painted and illustrated American buildings. Like the Brooklyn Bridge, it immediately became recognized as an American icon attracting the attention of numerous artists. With its unusual round corner and triangular shape, the Flat Iron Building garnered much interest and popularity which was further increased because of its prominent location at the intersection of the city's two main thoroughfares - Fifth Avenue and Broadway.
Guy Wiggins followed the lead of photography's main champion, Alfred Steiglitz, whose images of the Flat Iron Building from the winter of 1902-3 set the standard for future depictions of the building. Steiglitz's photographs, like Wiggins' The Flat Iron Building in Winter, are oriented vertically, composed from Madison Square and are often veiled under a fresh winter snow. This perspective - taken from street level head-on - heightened the soaring and 'dwarfing' qualities of this architectural marvel. As in most of Wiggins' New York pictures, cars and bundled up pedestrians crowd the snow covered streets.
A letter from Guy Wiggins, Jr. discussing the painting accompanies the lot.