Victor Higgins Oil Painting of Taos Mountain and Stream, 1940s

Item Details

Victor Higgins (American, 1884-1949)
Taos Mountain and Stream, 1940s
Oil on canvas board
Signed to lower right

Victor Higgins (1884-1949) was born in Shelbyville, Indiana, and left his home at the age of fifteen to study art at the Art Institute of Chicago and that city’s Academy of Fine Arts. He first visited Taos, New Mexico, in 1914 and joined the Taos Society of Artists in 1917. Higgins split his time between Chicago and Taos until 1921, when he permanently moved to New Mexico. Fascinated by the landscape around Taos, Higgins created paintings that became more abstract, stylized representations of form throughout his career. In the 1940s Higgins devoted himself to his landscape paintings, creating small works he referred to as ‘Little Gems.’ Higgins would drive out into the surrounding landscape and paint on the spot, working from a travel studio set up in the trunk of his car while he perched on the back bumper. These paintings are defined by their vitality and simplified compositions and represent an artist who fully understood the essence of nature in New Mexico.

Condition

- scattered areas of crushed impasto with some cracks and paint loss; cracks and chips to frame moulding.

Dimensions

- measures frame; painting measures 14 × 11 inches.

• Item not examined outside of mounting.

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Item #

ITMGR03563