1. Walter Gay was an American painter noted both for his genre paintings of French peasants, paintings of opulent interior scenes and was a notable art collector.
16 Facts About Walter Gay
1. 2.
Walter Gay was born on January 22,1856, in Hingham, Massachusetts, into an established New England family.
3.
Walter Gay was the son of Ebenezer and Ellen Blake Gay.
4.
Walter Gay's uncle was the Boston painter Winckworth Allan Gay, who introduced the young man to the art community.
5.
Walter Gay encountered the work of Spanish artist, Mariano Fortuny.
6.
Walter Gay received an honorable mention in the Paris Salon of 1885; a gold medal in 1888, and similar awards at Vienna, Antwerp, Berlin and Munich.
7.
Walter Gay was one of the few artists selected to represent the United States at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889.
8.
Walter Gay became an Officer of the Legion of Honor and a member of the Society of Secession, Munich.
9.
Walter Gay is most noted for these paintings of opulent interiors show-casing French chateaux and chic private homes.
10.
Walter Gay married Matilda E Travers, the heiress daughter of William R Travers, a prominent New York City investor and co-founder of Saratoga Race Course.
11.
Walter Gay's wife maintained a diary of the couple's time in Europe.
12.
Walter Gay died at Le Breu Dammarys les Lys, near Fontainebleau on July 13,1937.
13.
Walter Gay's widow remained at their home in France which was taken over by German officers following the German occupation of France during World War II.
14.
Walter Gay was created Chevalier Legion of Honor in 1894; Officer Legion of Honor in 1906 and a Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1927.
15.
Walter Gay was awarded the honor of Life fellow Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
16.
Works by Walter Gay are represented in many of the world's most prestigious art museums, including: the Luxembourg Museum, the Tate Gallery, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan, the Art Institute, the Frick in Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Brussels, Pinacotheca Museum, Munich, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Albright Art Gallery and the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, France.