Edward Gay (1837–1928) was an Irish-American artist who specialized in landscape paintings. He was active in Mt. Vernon, New York and

Cragsmoor, New York Cragsmoor is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 449 at the 2010 census. Cragsmoor is located atop the Shawangunk Ridge, in the south part of the Town of Wawarsing. Sam's Point Pre ...

Biography and career

The Great Famine of Ireland forced his family to move to America, when he was 11 years old. Gay trained in Albany on the advice of James Hart, his brother William Hart, and

George Henry Boughton George Henry Boughton (4 December 1833 – 19 January 1905) was an Anglo-American landscape and genre painter, illustrator and writer. Life and work Boughton was born in Norwich in Norfolk, England, the son of farmer William Boughton. The fam ...

, artists who recognized Gay's talent while he was still a child. In 1862, Gay went to

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

in Germany to continue his studies under the artists

Johann Wilhelm Schirmer Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (5 September 1807 in Jülich – 11 September 1863 in Karlsruhe) was a German landscape artist born in Jülich, within the Prussian Duchy of Jülich. Biography Schirmer was started as a student of historical paint ...

and

Karl Friedrich Lessing Karl Friedrich Lessing (15 February 1808, Breslau – 4 January 1880, Karlsruhe) was a German historical and landscape painter, grandnephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and one of the main exponents of the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biograp ...

. In 1864 he returned to the United States and dedicated himself to landscape painting. Gay and his wife, Martha Freary, moved to Mt. Vernon, New York. The couple had a son, Duncan–also an artist–and a daughter, Ingovar. Gay was a member of the New York Artists Fund Society,

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

, and the

Lotos Club The Lotos Club was founded in 1870 as a gentlemen's club in New York City; it has since also admitted women as members. Its founders were primarily a young group of writers and critics. Mark Twain, an early member, called it the "Ace of Clubs". ...

. He exhibited in museums and galleries throughout America and he painted murals for public libraries in Mt. Vernon, New York and Bronxville, New York. Gay died in 1928 in Mount Vernon, New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay, Edward 1837 births 1928 deaths American landscape painters Artists from Dublin (city) 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists