Walter Gay - Novembre, Etaples [c.1885]

Walter Gay - Novembre, Etaples [c.1885], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

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 prominent New York City investor and co-founder of Saratoga Race Course, William R. Travers. In 1876 the couple moved to Paris where Walter Gay became a pupil of Leon Bonnat. They lived in an apartment on the Left Bank and in 1907 purchased Chateau Le Breau on a 300-acre walled park near the Forest of Fontainebleau. 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.

[Oil on canvas, 110.5 x 163.8 cm]