*N.A. designates National Academy rival in New York in 1903, the young Cosrigan residedin a boarding house on 25th Street, across rhe srreerfrom the planned location of the armory building.Costigan made a sketch of the site when construc-rion of the building commenced irL 1904. Nine yearslater the srrucrure would house paintings and sculp-tures by many oF Europe's early modern masrers aswell as works by emerging American artists discountedby the academy system. Likely it was rhe revolution-ary spirit of rhose involved with the Armory Showthat most influenced the aspiring young Cosrigan.

Having painted seriously for several years,Costigan joined with orher arrisrs in 1915 ro leasespace made available by Robert Henri at New York'sMacDowell Club. The following year, Cosrigan wasaccepted into ajuried exhibition ar rhe Corcoran Gal-lery ofArt in Washingron, D.C. \X/hile serving for twoyears in the infantry during World War I, rhe artistexhibited paintings in annual shows at the NarionalAcademy of Design and again at the Corcoran.

After returning from the war and resuming hisposition as poster designer ar Minor Lithographing,Costigan married Ida Blessin, whom he had met whileshe worked as a cosrume model at the Kit Kat CIubprior to rhe war. An oil painting from 1918 enrirledIda-Artist's Wife, reveals rhe colorisric qualiries andski11ful draughtsmanship typical of his commercialwork. Ida was an arrisr as welI, working in c1ay. Thetwo set up home and studio in rhe small town ofOrangeburg, just twenry-five miles north ofNewyorkCity. Costigan had firsr discovered rhis haven andrented a small cottage there with fellow arrists fromthe Kit Kat Club several years earlier. It was here thatthe young artist first fek unconstrained both person-ally and artistically. The couple larer purchased anearby eleven-acre farm thar would remain home forthem and their five children for the rest oftheir lives.

Life on the Orangeburg farm was Cosrigan'smain source ofinspiration, with his family, surround-ing landscape, and livestock serving as subjecrs. peel-

ing Apples (7919) is an early work depicting Ida at thetask as her brother looks on. The oil adeptly capruresthe effect oflight filtered through dense foliage anddisplays rhe young arrisr's artenriveness ro creatingfluid and fresh brushwork. Costigan's studies as apainter included numerous visits to New York's Mer-ropolitan Museum of Arr where, in particular, he ad-mired John Singer Sargent's painring, The Hermit(1908). In addition to Sargent's masterful handlingof paint, Costigan was apparenrly intrigued by thesubject of this woodland scene. The Hermit deprcts amale figure reclining on the forest floor, his form andthose of two small deer visually merging wirh the par-rerned play o[dappled lighr on surrounding vegera-tion, suggesting the spiritual communion ofman andnature. Costigan's major works from the 1920s evokea similar reverent mood rhrough depictions of 69-ures wandering or seared in lush forest landscapes.

Costigan enjoyed grear success wirh his pastoralimages, receiving numerous awards in the early 1920s.

ohn Edward Costigan is best known forthick impasto oiI paintings of figures andlivestock in the landscape such as Fall Plowing(1930), Spring Landscape (ca. 1940), and Earl;,

Sp ring, Wo o d Inre rio r (19 50). These pastoral subjecsand the impressionistic depiction of natural lighr re-sult in the frequent comparison of Costigan to the19th-century French painrer Jean-FranEois Millet,whose chosen home and subject was his belovedBarbizon and surrounding region sourheasr ofparis.The critic Ernest W. Warson remarked, "Like Millethe [Costigan] has pictured the quiet beauty ofrurallife, the everyday happenings of life on rhe farm, sun-light and shadow in the woods. Like Millet he invitesus to the peace ofisolated pastoral exisrence. ...[How-everl Costigan's message, unlike Millet's, is essenriallya song ofjoy.... He shows us rhe feliciries rarher rhanthe fatigues offarm 1ife."l Indeed, despire personaland financial difficulties during his life, Cosrigan cre-ated heartening images that suggesr a resolute faithand quier pleasure in human exisrence.

'Jack" Costigan was born in 1888 of Irish-Ameri-can descent in Providence, Rhode Island. Orphanedwhile still in grade school, Costigan's Aunt Ne1lie andUncle Jerry Cohan (parents of the legendary GeorgeM. Cohan) brought rhe young man to New York Cityin 1903 and provided him with ajob as flyboy at theH.C. Miner Lithographing Company, which special-ized in theater and, later, film posters. Costigan com-menced his training as an arrisr in 1905 with rwoshort-lived periods of enrollment ar rhe Arr StudentsLeague under George Bridgman and William MerrittChase. His primary education, however, was achievedas a member of New York's Kit Kat Club, which pro-vided informal life-drawing sessions and studio spacefor established and emerging artisrs.2

A promotion to chore boy in the art departmentat Minor Lithographing provided rhe circumstancesfor Costigan to meet and work directly for severa.l yearswith the rebellious young arrisr George Luks. Luksand fellow artist-reporrers Robert Henri,John Sloan,William Glackens, and Everett Shinn, known as rhe'Ashcan" painters, transformed the subject matter ofAmerican art with their depicrions of urban working-class life. In the years ofCostigan's acquaincance withLuks, these arrisrs joined three other like-mindedpainters: Arthur B. Davies, Ernesr Lawson, andMaurice Prendergasr. This group, collecrively knownas "The Eighr," staged a series of mutinous exhibi-tions in defiance ofthe restrictive standards and elir-ist attitudes of the ubiquitous Narional Academy ofDesign. Their "rebellion" direcrly inspired the Ar-mory Show of 1913.

Although Costigan's attendance ar rhe exhibitionis uncertain,s it is unlikely the artisr would have missedthe controversial show in which so many of his ac-quaintances parricipated. He was certainly familiarwirh the location of the exhibition, for upon his ar-

Critics reviewing the artist's firsr one-man show atNew York's Rehn Gallery in 1924 made stylisric com-parisons to painters such as Sargent, Millet, Turner,and Monet, and noted thematic paral1els to literaryfigures such as Wordsworth, Thoreau, Emerson, andWhitman. For Costigan, his credrbiiiryas an arrisrwasmost clearly established by his election as fu1l acade-mician to the National Academy of Design in 1928.I{is Self-Portrair Q921, submitted in application tothe academy, tesdfies to Costigan's facility with paint,notwithstanding his lack of formal educarion andwithout the srudy abroad that was pracrically sran-dard for the institution's members. In this painting,as in many of his oi1s, Costigan applied pure colormasterfully, using a palette knife to creare a richimpasto. When viewed at the appropriate disrance, theresulting surface "scinrillares and sparkles like so manyjewels," as it was described by Costigan's friend andfellow painter George Pearse Ennis.a This innovativeand intricate handling ofpaint places Cosrigan's workfirm1y in the twentieth century, as artisrs became in-creasingly involved with rhe two-dimensional surface.

Costigan recreated his happy domestic life inmany oils including,/ack, Ida, and Danny (ca. 1930)and With the Three Children (1927); the latter, win-ner of the Altman Prize at the National Academy in1927, is unusual in that the artisr included himself inthe family scene. Many paintings and prints createdby Costigan after 1930 assume a more serious socialtone and attest to the economic deprivarion of theGreat Depression. Images of dislocated families andstruggling farmers prevail in etchings such as 7fieHomeless (1930) and Hungry and Homeless (1946),emphasizing the heroic will to survive. Women, in par-ticular, are given venerable status as in the lithograph,Mother and Child (1930), an overt reference ro .heMadonna and Chrisr Child.

Despite a 1ull in sales, Costigan's work receivedcontinuous recognition during the 1930s, most no-rably in one-man exhibitions ar rhe Smirhsonian(1937) and the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1941), theformer featuring prints and the latter featuring wa-tercolors. The plates for many of his etchings werepurchased by Associated American Artists to be re-produced at their discretion on note cards and calen-dars. Frs.herman Thrce (1938), considered to beCostigan's most famous print, was featured in theBook of the Month Club's advertisement for Simonand Schuster's A Treasury of American Prints (1.939),which includes three of the artist's etchings. A briefstint as instructor at the Art Srudents League in thesummers of 1936 and 7937 confirmed the artist's dis-like for classroom teaching; he preferred to work withindividual students at his home. In the late 1930s,Costigan completed several murals of familial subjectsfor the Federal Arts Project as well as serving on irsadvisory committee. Unfortunately, the commissionsserved only as a temporary reprieve from financialhardship that forced the artist to work for a briefpe-riod as a machinist in a defense plant beginning in1942.By the end of 1943, however, Costigan returnedto commercial art, initiating a long-rerm associationwith McCall's Bluebook as an illustrator. While never

achieving the level oFsuccess he had attained in the1920s, Costigan continued his active exhibitionrecord, most notably in group shows at the WhitneyMuseum of American Arr and the Metropolitan Mu-seum of Art, and continued to receive at least onemajor award nearly every year for the rest of his 1ife.At the age ofeighty, the artist was honored by a retro-spective exhibition organizedby the Paine Art Centerin Oshkosh, \X/isconsin, and toured nationally by theSmithsonian io 1968 and 1970. The last thirry yearsofthe artist's life provided suFficient sales, prizes, in-struction fees, and illustration work to supporrCostigan and his family until his death of pneu-rnonia in 1972.

From his first visit to the countryside west ofthe Hudson fuver where he would esrablish his own"Barbizonj'John Costigan assumed with passion the"disciple[ship] of the American soil" for which he wasnoted in 1938 along with American Scene paintersThomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood.s Critics andviewers make frequent comparisons to the work ofmore renowned artists, yet Costigan's oeuvre remainsindependent from much twentieth-century painting.As his friend George Ennis once said, "fCostigan's]world is uniquely that of the artist, a world where coloris dominant, where it fills the air in a sparkle of springrain."6 Quiet in their subject matter yet bold in theirtechnique, Costigan's paintings and prinrs are celebra-tions ofthe unpretentious rural life he sincerely loved.

JOSEPHTNE BLOODGOODMussuv Sruorss PnocRAM

ENDNOTES1 Ernest W. Watson,'John E. Coscigml'in Twenqt Paint-

ers md How They Worl (New York: Watson-Guprill, 1950), 38.2 Biographical inlormation for this essay was derived

From m unpublished biography written by the artist's son,Daniel M. Costigm, entitled IIe Trials md Triumphs of anAnerican Artist: The Story ofJohn E. Costign (@1970).Theauthor wishes to thank Daniel M. Costigan, Leland G.Howard, and fuchard L. Pope For sharing their research mddocumentation. Jennifer Casserly compiled some of this in-lormation in her initial research For this exhibition.

3 Interview by the author with Daniel M. Cosrigan,December 12, L995.

4 George Pierce Ennis, 'John E. Costigan," The Anteri-can Ar r S ttrdent and C ommercial Arr (October 3 1, 192 5): 9.

5 "Life in the United States...Painringl' Scribner's Maga-zin e (D ecemb er 19 38) : 39 - 42.

6 Ennis.9.

qcknowledgemenfsThis exhibition and brochure are presented through the museum studies program at the Ceorgia Museum ofArt. Wewould like to acknowledge the generosity of the lenders to the exhibition as well as, in particular, the graciousassistance of Mr. Leland C. Howard, Mr. Kirby Kooluris, Ms. Andr6e Ruellan, Mrs. Elizabeth Costigan Dick, Mr.Richard Pope, and Mr. Daniel M. Costigan. lalsowanttothankthescaff especiallyAnnelies Mondi, Bonnie Ramsey,

JenniferDePrima,andPeggySorrellsforhelpingmeteachmuseumpracticesthroughthisexhibirion.Partial supportforthe exhibition was generously provided by Director's Circle membersJohn A. and Miriam Harland Conant. Fi-

nal16 Rhonda Reymond andJennifer Casserly helped to initiate this project, which was so ably carried to fruition bythe associate curators Carol Ross andJosephine Bloodgood.

Wrluma U. EruuoDrnecron

checklist of the exhibitionJoxH E. Cosnorur, N.A.t . Ida Artisr's Wife, tgts

Oil on canvas

36 x 30 inches

Collection of Daniel M. and Dorothy Costigan

z. Study for lda-Artist's Wife,ttttPencil and tempera73l4x53l4inchesCollection of Daniel M. and Dorothy Costigan

z Peeling Apples, teteOil on canvas

36 1/4 x 30 inches

Collection of Harvey and Elizabeth Costigan Dick

q. Portrait of a Man, tol9Oil on canvas

20x'l6incheslnscribed: A Mon Ami Calusi / Costigan / NewYork 19'19

Private col lection

s. Self Portait, toz+Oil on canvas

30 1/8x25 1/8 inches

National Academy of Design, New York

a. Mother and Child with Goats,tezeOil on canvas

30 x 36 inches

Collection of Mr and Mrs. Richard L. Pope

z Jack, Ida, and Danny,ca.1930Oil on canvas

39 x 44 1 /2 inchesCollection of Mr. and Mrs. Leland C. Howard

B. Fall Plowing, tozoOil on canvas

141/2x17inchesCollection ofRuth and Frank Friedman

Cover:

Partial support for the exhibitions and progrdi6l:,for the Arts through appropriations ofthe Cportion of the museum's general operating s

Services, a federal agency that offers generaland corporations provide additional supportgia Museum ofArt's hours are 10 a.m. to 5

Checklisr Number Six (Detail)

Geoncrn Museuv oF ART

Prnronvrxc AND Vrsunl Anrs Covplrx

The Homeles,s, 1930 (printed '1940s)

Handcolored etching11 314x9 3/4 inches (image)Collection ofHarvey and Elizabeth Costigan Dick

Hungry and Homeless, 1946Etching12 x 14 3/4 inches (image)Collection of Harvey and Elizabeth Costigan Dick

Mother and Child,tgtoLithograph1 4 1 /2 x 17 inches (image)Collection of Mn and Mrs. Richard L. Pope

Fisherman Three, llzaEtching9x11718 inches (image)Colleccion of Mr and Mrs. Richard L. Pope

Spring Landscape, ca. 1g4oOil on canvas

35 l12x42incl'esCollection of Mr and Mrs. Leland C. Howard

At the Brook, ca. 1940Oil on canvas

20 x 20 inches

Collecrion of Mn and Mrs. Richard I . Pope

Early Spring. Wood [nterior, tgsoOil on board20 x24 inchesCollection of Harvey and Elizabeth Costigan Dick

Sketch for Large Painting (woodland oance), ca. 1950Oil on board9 x21 1 /2 inchesCollection of Mn and Mrs. Richard L. Pope

n provided through the lnstitute of Museumnation's museums. lndividuals, foundations,University of Ceorgia Foundation. The Ceor-

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&91$i$1M,9!!um ofArt is provided by the Ceorgia Councileral,Alsarnbfvrand the National Endowment for the Arts. A

Fridayl and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundayttthursday, and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on