August Gay whose birth name was Auguste-François Pierre Gay (June 11, 1890 – 1948) was a French-born American painter and etcher. He was a member of the
Society of Six in
Oakland, California, and an Impressionist landscape painter.
Life
Gay was born on June 11, 1890, in
Rabou
Rabou (; oc, Rabòu) is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Hautes-Alpes department
The following is a list of the 162 communes of the Hautes-Alpes department of France.
The ...
, France.
He emigrated to the United States with his family as a teenager, settling in
Alameda, California.
He suffered from
tuberculosis as a young man, and he attended the
California School of Fine Arts.
Gay co-founded the
Society of Six with
Selden Connor Gile
Selden Connor Gile (20 March 1877 – 8 June 1947) was an American painter who was mainly active in northern California between the early-1910s and the mid-1930s. He was the founder and leader of the Society of Six, a Bay Area group of artist ...
,
Maurice Logan
Maurice Logan (March 21, 1886 — March 19, 1977) was an American watercolorist, commercial artist and arts educator. He was a member of the Society of Six, and a professor at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California.
Life
L ...
,
Louis Siegriest,
Bernard von Eichman, and
William H. Clapp, in
Oakland, California.
He was an
Impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
, and he painted California landscapes ''
en plein air''.
For art historian Nancy Boas, Gay had "an instinctive understanding of picture making, an original sense of color, and a desire to deal with important pictorial issues."
Gay later moved to
Monterey, where he shared a studio with
Clayton Sumner Price
Clayton Sumner "C. S." Price (1874 – 1950) was an American expressionist painter from Oregon.
Biography
Price was born on May 11, 1874 near Bedford, Iowa, and raised on farms and ranches there and in Wyoming and Alberta, Canada. In 1905, a local ...
and he managed a furniture repair store.
Gay married Marcelle Chaix, who was also French, in 1934.
He died in 1948.
His artwork can be seen at the
Oakland Museum of California.
Further reading
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay, August
1890 births
1948 deaths
People from Hautes-Alpes
French emigrants to the United States
San Francisco Art Institute alumni
Artists from Oakland, California
People from Monterey, California
American landscape painters
American Impressionist painters
20th-century American painters