Part of the following biography was contributed by Dan Costigan, son of the artist.

A native of Providence, Rhode Island, John Costigan was a skilled landscape and figure painter who disdained portraits because "the subjects want flattering pictures."

He was orphaned and raised in New York by his aunt and uncle, the parents of songwriter, George M. Cohan. Mainly self-taught, Costigan studied briefly at the Art Students League and worked as a lithographer of theater posters. From that job he learned the printing processes that he later used in his many etchings. He began making his name in the fine arts in 1920, and throughout the decade, reaped numerous important prizes for his oils, watercolors and prints.<...