About

The McGuigan Collection is a private endeavor based in the Harpswell, Maine, USA, that is dedicated to the acquisition, scholarly interpretation, and display of the paintings, sculpture, watercolors, drawings, prints, and photographs created by American artists in Italy from the second half of the eighteenth century into the first decades of the twentieth century. The McGuigan Collection also possesses significant holdings by an array of international artists who worked in Italy and constituted the Americans’ milieu there. It thus presents a valuable opportunity for the exploration of the vibrant interchange that characterized relations between artists of various nationalities—aesthetically, politically, socially, and intellectually—in the cosmopolitan art centers of Italy during the time period under consideration. The McGuigan Collection consists of hundreds of paintings and sculptures, thousands of works on paper, and more than ten thousand period photographs. An extensive research library and archive complement the objectives of the McGuigan Collection. John F. McGuigan Jr. and Mary K. McGuigan are the founders and Co-Directors of the McGuigan Collection which is open to qualified researchers through prior arrangement.

Principals

John F. McGuigan Jr.

John F. McGuigan Jr. is an independent scholar, collector, and philanthropist. He has written extensively on the topic of artists working in Italy in the 19th century, including, most recently, as co-author of In Light of Rome. Early Photography in the Capital of the Art World, 1842–1871 (Brunswick, Maine, 2022) and as a contributor to American Latium. American artists and travelers in and around Rome in the age of the Grand Tour (Rome, 2023). He was a contributor to America’s Rome: Artists in the Eternal City, 1800–1900 (Cooperstown, New York, 2009); Sculptors, Painters, and Italy: Italian Influence on Nineteenth-Century American Art (Saonara, Italy, 2009); Crossings: Ponti sull’Atlantico. Testi in ricordo di Regina Soria (Naples, 2011); and At the foot of the Pyramid. 300 years of the cemetery for foreigners in Rome (Rome, 2016). He was co-author, with his wife Mary K. McGuigan, of John Gadsby Chapman: America’s First Artist-Etcher. With a Catalogue of His Italian Etchings (Harpswell, Maine, 2015) and James E. Freeman (1808–1884): An American Painter in Italy (Utica, New York, 2009). John has served in an advisory capacity for the Fine Arts Program of the Federal Reserve, Washington, DC; The Olana Partnership, Hudson, New York; Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, Utica, New York; and Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. He received his BA and MA from the University of Denver and wrote his thesis on the wrapped-orange still lifes of William J. McCloskey.

Mary K. McGuigan

Mary K. McGuigan is an independent scholar, collector, and philanthropist specializing in the topic of American and European artists in 19th-century Italy. She was co-author, with her husband John F. McGuigan Jr., of John Gadsby Chapman: America’s First Artist-Etcher. With a Catalogue of His Italian Etchings (Harpswell, Maine, 2015) and James E. Freeman (1808–1884): An American Painter in Italy (Utica, New York, 2009). She was a contributor to American Latium. American artists and travelers in and around Rome in the age of the Grand Tour (Rome, 2023); Grand Tour. Sogno d’Italia da Venezia a Pompei (Milan, 2021); At the foot of the Pyramid. 300 years of the cemetery for foreigners in Rome (Rome, 2016); America’s Rome: Artists in the Eternal City, 1800–1900 (Cooperstown, New York, 2009); Crossings: Ponti sull’Atlantico: Testi in ricordo di Regina Soria (Naples, 2011); and Sculptors, Painters, and Italy: Italian Influence on Nineteenth-Century American Art (Saonara, Italy, 2009). She has served on the advisory committees for the Ellen Noel Art Museum of the Permian Basin, Odessa, Texas, and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. She earned her BA at the University of Denver.