biografia di Eugene HIGGINS (1874-1958)

Birth place: Kansas City, MO

Death place: NYC

Addresses: NYC (from 1904)/Lyme, CT

Profession: Painter, printmaker

Studied: Acad. Julian, Paris with J.P. Laurens and Constant, 1897-98; …cole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.

Exhibited: Armory Show, 1913; S. Indp. A., 1917; PAFA, 1917, 1920-45, 1952; Corcoran Gal., 1923-45 (11 times); AIC, 1929 (med.); Grand Central Gal., 1930 (prize); NAD, 1931 (prize), 1937 (prize); NAC, 1933 (med.); SC, 1932 (prize); NYWCC, 1937 (prize); Am. WCS, 1937 (med.); WMAA; Carnegie Intl.

Member: NA, 1928; NYWCC; SAE; SAA; Brooklyn SE; NAC; AWCS; SC; AFA; Nat. Inst. Arts & Letters; Lyme SA.

Work: LOC (200 etchings); Milwaukee AI; LACMA; William and Mary College; WMAA; MMA; British Mus.; NYPL; Brooklyn Lib.; Wash. Lib.; Boston PL; CAM; BibliothÈque Nationale, Paris; AIC; USPOs, Beaver Falls, PA, Shawano, WI; Catholic Lib., Hartford, CT (25 monotypes)

Comments: One of the "Ashcan School" artists, he was drawn to depicting the poor, the homeless, and slums, perhaps because he, too, had known poverty. He also painted some Western scenes but did not belong to the Taos colony or any other group. Starting in 1913, he spent several summers at Cragsmoor, NY. Contributor: illus. of poor for French journal of social satire, Assiette au beurre (Jan. 9, 1904).

Sources: WW47; WW53; Baigell, Dictionary; 300 Years of American Art, 717; Mecklenburg, Zurier, and Snyder, Metropolitan Lives: the Ashcan Artists and their New York; P&H Samuels, 223; Cragsmoor Artists' Vision of Nature, exh. brochure (Cragsmoor Free Library, NY, 1977); Falk, Exh. Record Series.