Wiggin Forains

Albert Henry Wiggin, retired governing board chairman of Chase National Bank, sailed for Europe last week to tackle once again the prickly problem of Germany's short term loans. Before leaving he gave an out-of-the-ordinary going-away party: a private view before the public exhibition of his collection of Forain paintings, etchings and lithographs. John Pierpont Morgan attended. So did John Davison Rockefeller Jr., Adolph Ochs, Ogden Reid, Owen D. Young, Nicholas Murray Butler, Paul Cravath, Arthur Curtiss James, Arthur Brisbane, Lily Pons. There was tea.

Ask any Wall Streeter about Banker Wiggin and the pat answer will be, "He's the man with a million friends." Banker Wiggin probably is as personally popular as any man in U. S. finance. Albert Wiggin is "Al" to almost as many people as Alfred Smith. His informality, his good nature, his loyalty, his passionate concentration on golf and poker make him friends and keep them. Although his interest in etchings has long been known, few persons realized until last week what an important print collector Mr. Wiggin is. On view were 271 different works illustrating practically the entire career of the late great Jean-Louis Forain who, starting out as a bitter satirist of middle class life, at his death in 1931 was known as one of the greatest religious draughtsmen since Rembrandt. Mr. Wiggin's Forain collection is unmatched in the U. S., has only three peers in Europe: the Dresden Museum, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the London collection of Campbell Dodgson.

Jean-Louis Forain is by no means the only artist Mr. Wiggin collects. He boasts the most-complete-in-the-world collections of three famed Scotch etchers: James McBey, Muirhead Bone, Sir David Young Cameron. Among his hundreds of miscellaneous prints is the famed "Hundred Guilder Print" of Rembrandt's "Christ Healing the Sick."

All these prints are kept in a specially panelled room with false walls designed by his wife, an able amateur sculptress (TIME, Feb. 29). On ordinary occasions all that is visible are a few choice prints carefully framed. For favored friends each panel will swing back to show its reverse completely covered with Mr. Wiggin's favorites in narrow moldings, to expose shelves stacked high with hundreds of others.

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