Born in Brooklyn, the son of popular landscape painter Carleton Wiggins, Guy Wiggins had a long and substantial career. Along with preliminary training in architecture at Brooklyn Polytechnic, he studied at the National Academy of Design with William Merritt Chase and the important American Impressionist Robert Henri.

Prestige came early for the artist when the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired one of his paintings. He was the youngest living artist ever represented in this prestigious permanent collection. Throughout his life, he continued to win numerous awards for artistic excellence at prominent exhibitions and institutions.

Wiggins was dedicated to maintaining his personal style and theory of painting in opposition to a growing American demand for Realism. His impressionistic views of the American landscape were inspired not by French or Continental artists, but rather through Americans such as Childe Hassam. Wiggins was unique in his interpreting and assimilating the medium with a Yankee sensibility. Later, after gaining substantial influence he opened a prestigious art school in Essex, Connecticut.