51259 The Art and Life of Walter and Matilda Gay. Harry N Abrams New York 2000. 4to - over 9" - 12" tall. 239 pp., b/w and colour illustrations. Illustrated dustwrapper with minor edge wear. Otherwise, near fine. Walter Gay painted interior views - searching for the 'spirit of empty rooms', as he put it - and his pictures were eagerly sought after by museums and socially prominent collectors on both sides of the Atlantic. He exhibited regularly and counted among his friends many significant figures in the Parisian art world. Although Matilda Gay stood in the shadow of her husbands career in the art world, she was far from modest or retiring. She was, in fact, a powerful force in the fashionable social circles of her time and entertained lavishly in the Gays' large Paris apartment and at their enormous chateau near Fontainebleau. Matilda Gay kept a journal, in which she described parties and personalities, but her observations were unusually perceptive and often highly amusing. The witty remarks of Matilda Gay are deftly woven with the stylish pictures of her husband; a combination of refinement, taste and good manners. Henry James described these American expatriates as the "sublime Walter Gays". $50.00AUD
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