William Carrigan studied art with Emil Carlsen, and made his residence in the town associated with the Carlsens, Falls Village, Connecticut.
He had a successful, if inconspicuous career, as exemplified by a selection of his awards: a silver medal at the Washington (D. C.) Society of Artists, 1914, a silver medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, 1915; the Walter L. Clark portrait prize in the members' annual show at the Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, 1931; the Connecticut Prize for best work in the show of the Painters Club of New Haven, 1934; and the Barstow prize for landscape at the Stockbridge (Massachusetts) Exhibition, 1934. His paintings were Exhibitions of his work in oil were held at Ferargil Galleries, New York, in 1920 and 1921, and of his watercolors at Rehn Galleries, New York in 1925.
Carrigan's career was somewhat interupted by his service during the first world war he as United States Consul in Lisbon, for which he was awarded the decoration of St. Tiago da Espada by the Portugese government.
