ARTHUR CLIFTON GOODWIN American, 1864-1929 Harbor View with Church Tower Oil on canvas Signed "A.G. Goodwin" lower right. Impressionist harbor scene capturing a bustling waterfront with sailboat masts, a distant blue-toned church tower, and a crowd of dockworkers and figures along a wooden quay. Framed.
CONDITION NOTE: The painting shows no tears, losses, or damage to the canvas itself, but the surface is heavily soiled with accumulated dirt and grime, and would benefit from professional conservation cleaning. 38 x 43.5 inches; frame: 43 x 49 inches $1,500-2,500
ARTIST PROFILE: Arthur Clifton Goodwin (1864–1929) was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and raised in Chelsea, Massachusetts, but did not take up painting until age thirty, developing into a largely self-taught Impressionist influenced by the urban realism of Robert Henri's Ashcan School. He did not begin painting until the age of thirty and became a self-taught Impressionist and also a follower of the Ashcan School led by Robert Henri. He became renowned for his spontaneous, atmospheric views of Boston's streets, parks, and waterfront—especially his celebrated "T" Wharf series—earning praise from Childe Hassam, who called him "the greatest painter in Boston." Goodwin was a member of the Guild of Boston Artists and the Boston Society of Water Color Painters, and exhibited at institutions including the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, despite being self-taught, he was a member of the Guild of Boston Artists as well as the Boston Society of Water Color Painters, with work now held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and the New Britain Museum of Art, among others. His work is represented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Union Club, Boston; St. Botolph Club, Boston; Addison Gallery of Art, Andover, MA; Colby College, ME; New Britain Museum of Art, CT. He spent the early 1920s in New York City, painting urban subjects from a Washington Square studio, before returning to Boston in 1929, the year he died.
