A look back at a famous portrait of the park in the snow. Guy Carleton Wiggins painted this elegant lady in red and her dog with the park’s Arch acting as a silhouette. Stroll in Washington Square sold at Sotheby’s in 2001*.
Wiggins (1883-1962) studied at the Old Lyme Art Colony in Connecticut established in 1899. It “was in its time the most famous art colony in the United States, and the first to adopt Impressionism.” The artist painted many winter scenes of New York City. His work is included in collections at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and more.
Wiggins’ son, Guy Arthur Wiggins, was also an artist and died in 2020 at age 100. According to a 2011 New York Times article on this family of painters, he worked out of a studio on West 4th Street.
*The original article on the sale at Sotheby’s has been taken down.