A Charmed Couple. The Art and Life of Walter and Matilda Gay.

[Gay, Walter and Matilda] Rieder, William.

Published by New York, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2000

About this Item

First Edition. 22cm x 27.5cm. 239 pages. Illustrated throughout. Original Hardcover with original dustjacket in protective collector's mylar. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Includes for Example: Matilda Travers and Walter Gay. Walter Gay Genre Painter. Walter Gay Painter of Interiors. Matilda Gay Diarist Hostess Wife. The Gays as Collectors. Edward Robinson. Ralph Curtis. John Singer Sargent. Lord Ribblesdale and Lady de Grey. Elisie de Wolfe, Bessie Marbury and Anne Morgan. Edith Wharton. Henry James. Jacques-Emile Blanche. Egerton Winthrop. Henry Adams. Alfred Sommier. Comte de Vogue. Comtesse Robert de Fitz-James. Marquise de Ganay. Paul-Cesar Helleu. Bernard Berenson. Madeleine Lemaire. Comtesse de Pourtales. Pierre Decourcelle. Nelie Jacquemart Andre. Geoffrey Dodge. Henry Clay Frick and Helen Clay Frick. The Great War. The Post war years. Memoirs of Walter Gay. Walter Gay (January 22, 1856 - July 15, 1937) was an American painter born at Hingham, Massachusetts. He married heiress Matilda E. Travers, the daughter of William R. Travers, a prominent New York City investor and co-founder of Saratoga Race Course. In 1876 the couple moved to Paris, France where Walter Gay became a pupil of Leon Bonnat. They lived in an apartment on the Left Bank and in 1907 purchased Chateau Le Bréau on a 300-acre (1.2 km2) walled park near the Forest of Fontainebleau. Walter Gay received an honorable mention in the Paris Salon of 1885; a gold medal in 1888, and similar awards at Vienna (1894), Antwerp (1895), Berlin (1896) and Munich (1897). He became an Officer of the Legion of Honor and a member of the Society of Secession, Munich. Works by him are in the Luxembourg, the Tate Gallery (London), and the Boston and Metropolitan (New York) Museums of Art. His compositions are mainly figure subjects portraying French peasant life. When Walter Gay died in 1937 his obituary in The New York Times described him as the "dean of American artists in Paris." The following year the Metropolitan Museum of Art held a memorial exhibition of his work. His widow remained at their home in France which was taken over by German officers following the German occupation of France during World War II. A virtual prisoner in her own home, Matilda Travers Gay died there in 1943. (Wikipedia) ______________________________ Ab 1895 veränderte Walter Gay sowohl seine Malweise als auch die Motivwahl. Es entstanden in den Jahren bis zu seinem Tod im Jahr 1937 fast ausnahmslos Interieurs im Stile des 18. Jahrhunderts. Er begann mit Ansichten der Räume seines Château du Bréau und des benachbarten Château de Fortoiseau, die schnell bei wohlhabenden Käufern Interesse an Darstellungen der eigenen Wohnsitze weckte. Zu seinen Kunden gehörten beispielsweise die mit Gay befreundeten Edith Wharton, Henry James, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, der Duke of Sutherland und Berthe de Béhague, die alle Interieurs ihrer Wohnsitze anfertigen ließen. Darüber hinaus entstanden Innenansichten von verschiedenen Museen wie dem Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York und dem Musée Carnavalet sowie dem Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris. Ebenso fertigte er Interieurs des New Yorker Wohnhauses von Henry Clay Frick (heute Frick Collection) sowie des Venezianischen Palazzo Barbaro für den amerikanischen Besitzer Daniel Sargent Curtis an. Für diese Interieurs wählte Gay einen flüchtigen Pinselstrich, den er von den Impressionisten übernahm und arbeitete wie sie mit unterschiedlichen Lichtverhältnissen. Gay bildete dabei nicht in jedem Fall die vorgefundenen Begebenheiten ab, sondern arrangierte meist Möbel und sonstiges Inventar zu einer malerischen Komposition um. Häufig wählte er in seinen kleinformatigen Interieurs nur einen Raumausschnitt und verzichte auf die Abbildung von Personen. Ähnliche Bilder finden sich in den Werken von Edgar Degas, Adolph Menzel und John Singer Sargent, die ebenso zu Gays Freunden zählten wie der Maler Ralph Wormeley Curtis und die Innenarchitektin.

Seller Inventory # 580BB

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Charmed Couple. The Art and Life of Walter and Matilda Gay.
• Publisher: New York, Harry N. Abrams Inc.
• Publication Date: 2000
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Weight: 1200 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Varia