Arthur Clifton Goodwin

Arthur Clifton Goodwin (1864-1929) was born in New Hampshire, USA, and earned praise and space in exhibitions as a painter of city streets, landscapes, and waterways in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Self-taught and based mostly in Boston during his lifetime, he belonged to no school or movement. Many of his Boston cityscapes were infused with warmth and light in an Impressionist style, which was popular among American artists of the time.

His paintings, likely completed between 1920 and 1927 when he lived in New York, however, have a darker feel. “Fifth Avenue, New York, Near St. Patrick’s” used gritty brushstrokes to create sooty skies, rain-soaked streets, and a dark and distorted Fifth Avenue.

“Times Square, New York,” also dating to the 1920s, is equally rough and murky. In this entertainment mecca of electric theatre lights and illuminated billboards, Goodwin depicted a distant patch of blue sky amid shades of gray, black, and white, with humans navigating slushy sidewalks and overshadowed by the bricks-and-mortar canyon.

It’s too simplistic to read into an artist’s backstory and come up with a clear reason for a change in tone or style. But without much to go on concerning Goodwin’s backstory, a possible explanation for his dark turn could be found in the biographical writeup on the Raimondi Gallery website: heartbreak.

In 1920, Goodwin painted Washington Square from his studio there. After his marriage failed, the despondent artist returned to Boston and Goodwin led the life of a Bohemian and drank excessively,” the write-up states.

Goodwin’s despondency apparently led to his death at age 65 in 1929.

Although Goodwin never studied in Paris, he vowed one day he would go to see the Impressionists work firsthand. Tragically, after an excessive drinking binge, Goodwin was found dead in his Boston studio with tickets to Paris in his pocket.