Artist: John E. Costigan (1888-1972) America

Title: Fall Ploughing

Medium: Original Etching, Signed in Pencil lower right

Size: 14.75 x 19” Framed

Cositigan’s strong sense of movement developed through a varied palette and the handling of light, line, and composition fills his works with vitality. The rustic figures hold an equal weight with their surroundings, with the two bound together by the artist’s bold rendering of light and dark. This impressionistic portrait of a family involved in the hard work of Fall Ploughing.

A self-taught artist and trained printmaker who typically depicted sympathetic portraits of a simple farm life and local people where he lived. John Costigan was a self-taught painter and trained printer distinguished by his impressionistic style. Born on February 29, 1888, in Providence, Rhode Island he was orphaned in adolescence. Costigan captures both the pastoral and the everyday realities of rural life, often focussed on the role of women.