Horseback Riders in Central Park, Winter

Arthur Clifton Goodwin

ca. 1918–1920

Oil on canvas

New York Historical

Two figures on horseback ride through a snowy park with bare trees and distant buildings. Several other figures walk in the background. American Impressionist Arthur Clifton Goodwin was a self-taught artist who began to paint at the age of thirty. Working in Boston in oil and pastel for some twenty years, Goodwin gained the recognition of art world figures, among them artist John Singer Sargent and collector Isabella Stewart Gardner, known as Mrs. Jack Gardner. Inspired by fellow Impressionist Childe Hassam, he proudly reported the artist called him “the greatest painter in Boston.’” Around the time of the Armory Show in 1913, America’s major encounter with modern art, Goodwin turned his attention to figures and was influenced by the work of English artist Walter Si