Winckworth Allan Gay

Background

Winckworth Allan Gay came of a family long prominent in Eastern Massachusetts. He was born on 18 August 1821, at West Hingham, the son of Ebenezer and Mary Alleyne (Otis) Gay.

His brother, Sydney Howard Gay, was an editor, author, and historian; his nephew, Walter Gay, a well-known painter.

His great-grandfather, Rev. Ebenezer Gay, was a noted Unitarian clergyman.

Education

Young Allan Gay was allowed, at the age of seventeen, to go to West Point and study under Robert W. Weir, professor of drawing in the United States Military Academy. There he obtained a sound foundation.

In 1847, he went to France and continued his studies under Constant Troyon in Paris. The formation of the sober and personal style which was to be the distinctive mark of Gay’s work was in a large measure due to the influence of this French master.

Career

After leaving the Paris atelier Gay visited Italy, Switzerland, and Holland; then, returning to the United States in 1850, he established himself in Boston, there to remain for the greater part of his professional life.

After living and working in Boston for twenty-four years, he went to Egypt in 1874 and spent a winter on the Nile. The following year he exhibited several works at the National Academy. In 1877, he held an exhibition in Boston which contained over a hundred pictures, including landscapes painted in Egypt, Holland, Italy, and America.

Later in the same year, he traveled to the far East, there to stay for a period of five years. He passed one winter in China, sketching in the vicinity of Hong Kong, Canton, and Macao; and one winter in India; the remainder of the time he spent in Japan, where he made lengthy sojourns at Tokio, Yokohama, and Kioto, as well as in a number of interior towns.

His return home was made by way of Europe, with a stop of two years or so in Paris on the way. Soon after arriving in Boston he placed on exhibition a large collection of paintings which described with exceptional completeness and fidelity the life, landscape, flora, and architecture of Japan.

All the picturesque aspects of the country were shown with remarkable veracity and charm. The last few years of his life were passed in retirement at his native place, West Hingham, Massachusets, where he died at the ripe age of eighty- nine.

Achievements

• Gay was one of the first American painters to introduce to his compatriots the revivifying spirit of the landscape movement in France which was destined to make such a deep impression upon American painting and taste.

Works

More photos

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  • Art Oyster Winckworth Allan Gay Gleaners - 20.05" x 25.05" Premium Canvas Print Gallery Wrapped

    (20.05" x 25.05" Winckworth Allan Gay Gleaners premium can...)

  • Art Oyster Winckworth Allan Gay Japanese Landscape - 16.05" x 24.05" Premium Canvas Print with Gold Frame

    (16.05" x 24.05" Winckworth Allan Gay Japanese Landscape f...)

  • Ori Gallery - Mount Fugi sic - by Winckworth Allan Gay - 12 by 8 inch

Personality

Gay had a long career of happy work, though in Samuel Isham’s opinion he did not attain the measure of fame he deserved.

His work was marked by simplicity and truth, and it combined breadth with delicacy.

He owed much to the French school, but his manner and method were quite personal, and his pictures have the permanent virtues of modesty and understatement.

Connections

Gay was never married.

Father:

Ebenezer Gay

1771 - 1842

Mother:

Mary Allyne Otis Gay

7 March 1780 - 18 November 1866

Brother:

Sydney Howard Gay

22 May 1814 - 25 June 1888

Brother:

Martin Gay

11 February 1803 - 12 January 1850

Sister:

Elizabeth Margaret Gay Chapin

28 April 1811 - 2 June 1861

Sister:

Frances Maria Gay

4 April 1809 - 8 March 1893

Sister:

Abby Frothingham Gay Winslow

14 May 1816 - 11 January 1905

References

• Winckworth Allan Gay: America's First Barbizon Painter