Presenting 70 works from public and private collections, this beautifully illustrated volume offers the opportunity to re-evaluate the American artist Walter Gay's depiction of "empty" rooms, filled with furniture but with no human presence. Walter Gay (1856 -1937) was a highly accomplished artist, collector and tastemaker. He and his wife Matilda lived in Paris for much of their life and enjoyed a leading role in stylish society; many of the interiors that he painted, with their 18th-century French furnishings, were rooms in their own homes, or those of friends. Awarded a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1888, it is the poetic rooms that form the basis of Gay's legacy. Three essays explore his career, his reputation within the art market, his place in the history of American collecting; and the importance of interior decoration to Walter and Matilda Gay, along with the influence of leading contemporaries such as Edith Wharton. Contents: Lenders; Director's Foreword; Guest Curator's Acknowledgements; Walter Gay: A Brief Biography; Chronology; Walter Gay's Work at the Frick Residence in New York: A Case Study Sarah J. Hall; Walter Gay's Poetic Rooms Isabel L. Taube; Gracious Living: The Interior Decoration of Walter Gay and His Circle Nina Gray; Passionate Connoisseurs: Walter Gay and his Patrons Priscilla Vail Caldwell; Catalogue; Early Interiors; Walter and Matilda Gay's Interiors; French Interiors, Country and City; Venetian Interiors; British Interiors; American Interiors; Selected Bibliography; Photo Credits; Index. AUTHOR: Isabel L. Taube, PhD an art historian at the School of Visual Arts, New York, is a specialist in 19th-century American painting and a frequent contributor to the online journal Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide. She has done extensive research and writing on the depiction of interiors, including her dissertation Rooms of Memory: The Artful Interior in American Painting. ILLUSTRATIONS: 105 colour D20 b/w illustrations
