The papers of expatriate painter Walter Gay measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1870-1937 with some photocopied items and a photograph dated 1980. The collection includes photocopies of two letters, scrapbooks assembled by Gay's wife, Matilda Gay, with correspondence, photographs, exhibition catalogs, price lists for artwork, and clippings, photocopies of a scrapbook of clippings, four of Gay's sketchbooks, three photographs of Gay and a photograph of a painting by Gay.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of expatriate painter Walter Gay measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1870-1937 with some photocopied items and a photograph dated 1980. The collection includes photocopies of two letters, scrapbooks assembled by Gay's wife, Matilda Gay, with correspondence, photographs, exhibition catalogs, price lists for artwork, and clippings, photocopies of a scrapbook of clippings, four of Gay's sketchbooks, three photographs of Gay and a photograph of a painting by Gay.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of the collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Series 1: Walter Gay Papers, 1870-1937, 1980 (Boxes 1-4; 1.2 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Expatriate painter Walter Gay (1856-1937) was born in Hingham, Massachusetts. He married heiress Matilda E. Travers, and in 1876 the couple moved to Paris where Gay became a pupil of Leon Bonnat. The couple lived in an apartment on the Left Bank and in 1907 purchased Chatea Le Breau near the Forest of Fontainebleau.
Gay painted figure studies of French peasant life but was best known for his interiors of turn of the century private homes furnished by decorators such as Elsie de Wolfe and novelist Edith Wharton, who formed part of the large and stylish circle of friends in which the Gays circulated.
Gay received honorable mention in the Paris Salon of 1885 and a gold medal in 1888. He became an Officer of the Legion of Honor and his works can be found in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Tate Gallery, London.
Provenance:
The Walter Gay papers were donated in two 1980 accessions. Scrapbooks, transcripts and photographs of Gay were donated by Mrs Bronson (Sophie Gay) Griscom, niece of Walter Gay. Sketchbooks, photocopies of a scrapbook, photocopies of letters, and a photograph of artwork were donated by John Gay, nephew of Walter Gay.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Research material for exhibitions curated by Reynolds at the Grey Art Gallery, for articles, essays, and his graduate studies; and miscellaneous correspondence and subject files.
Files on exhibitions curated by Reynolds at the Grey Art Gallery, including Louis Comfort Tiffany: The Paintings (1979), John James Audubon and His Sons (1982), Samuel F.B. Morse and the Grand Style (1983), Giovannie Boldini and Society Portraiture (1984), and Walter Gay, 1856-1937 (1984), containing correspondence with owners of works of art, galleries, auction houses and museums; issues of the Grey Art Gallery Bulletin containing writings by Reynolds; files relating to published and unpublished writings, including Reynolds' master's thesis on A.D.O. Browere and other writings done as a graduate student at Brooklyn College, articles, essays, and other writings on Theodore Wores, Irving Wiles, Leopold Seyffert, John Singer Sargent, the architecture of the Brooklyn Museum, and other subjects.
Also included are writings by others; miscellaneous correspondence; printed material; photographs of works of art; and files regarding Reynolds' participation in New York State funded art projects, including New York: The State of Art (1977), Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Arts For Transit (1981-1985), and the New York State Council on the Arts' Museum Aid panel (1983-1986). Some of the Grey Art Gallery exhibition files contain related correspondence added by Reynolds after the exhibition.
Biographical / Historical:
Art historian; New York, N.Y. and Newark, N.J. Born 1949. Died 1990. Curator of painting and sculpture at the Newark Museum, N.J., 1983-1990; the Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University, 1977-1983, and curatorial assistant at the Brooklyn Museum, 1972-1977. Specialized in 19th and 20th century American painting. Wrote numerous articles on art.
Provenance:
Donated 1991 by the Gary Reynolds estate, via Paul Himmelstein, executor.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
47 photographs of 43 artists in their Paris studios. Artists include: Louise Abbema, Albert Aublet, Riene Bellcourt, Jean Beraud, Paul Albert Besnard, Maurice Bompard, Leon Joseph Florentin Bonnat, Gustave Rodolphe Clarence Boulanger, William Adolphe Bouguereau, Frederick Arthur Bridgman, Alexandre Cabanel, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Georges Jules Victor Clairin, Louis Joseph Rapheal Collin, Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant, Fernand Cormon, Gustave Courtois, Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan, Jean Baptiste Edouard Detaille, Ernest Ange Duez, Carolus Duran, Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguiere, T. R. Fleury, J. Frappa, Walter Gay, Jean Leon Gerome, Henri Gervex, George Peter Alexander Healy, Antoine Auguste Ernest Hebert, Jean Jacques Henner, Charles Jacques, Jean Paul Laurens, Jules Lefebvre, Albert Maignan, Luc Olivier Merson, Aime Nicolas Morot, Mihaly Munkacsy, Alphonse Wane de Neuville, Georges Rochegrosse, Alfred Philippe Roll, John Singer Sargent, Alfred Stevens, and George Adolphus Storey.
The studios show mainly a strong Moorish influence.
Provenance:
Donated by the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1971, which had received them from a Mrs. Kirkham?, a painter who probably purchased them while studying in Paris.
Papers relating to Gallatin's art collection, the Museum of Living Art, and other museums and activities.
REELS 507-508: Mainly correspondence. Letters pertain to the Museum of Living Art at New York University; Gallatin's work on the New York Mayor's Committee on National Defense, including many letters from artists regarding war work, 1918-1919; research for bibliographies; family matters; and business affairs. Correspondents include: Oscar Bluemner, Alexander Calder, Warrington Dawson, Robert Delaunay, Charles Demuth, Charles Freer, Walter Gay, William Glackens, Julio Gonzalez, Childe Hassam, Henry McBride, C. R. W. Nevinson, Ben Nicholson, Maxfield Parrish, Joseph & Elizabeth Pennell, Leonce Rosenberg, William Rothenstein, Allan Wade and Elizabeth Wharton.
The Bluemner material includes four letters, a sketch, and a note from Oscar Bluemner to Gallatin. Bluemner writes about the 1932 Whitney Museum show, French and American painters, architecture, and painting.
REEL 1293: 3 scrapbooks which include official press releases and clippings of artists about the opening of the Gallery of Living Art at NYU, and its subsequent acquisitions, exhibitions, change of name to Museum of Living Art, and discontinuance of the Museum and transfer to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Also included are reproductions of some of the works found in the collection, reproductions of photos taken by Gallatin of artists whose works are in this collection, a 1935 Gallery of Living Art Bulletin, and clippings and a portion of the Catalog of the Gallery of Living Art.
Biographical / Historical:
Art collector; New York, N.Y. Gallatin formed one of America's earliest modern art collections, and displayed it as Gallery of Living Art (later Museum of Living Art) at NYU from 1907-1943, when he moved it to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gallatin was also a painter.
Provenance:
Material on reels 507-508 lent for microfilming in 1973; reel 1293 lent by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
The papers of New York painter and art critic William Anderson Coffin date from 1886-1924 and measure 1.6 linear feet. Found within the papers are scattered biographical materials and correspondence, project files for the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, the American Artist's Committee of One Hundred, and the exhibition of works by American Artists at the Luxembourg Museum in Paris, three additional scrapbooks, printed material, and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of New York painter and art critic William Anderson Coffin date from 1886 to 1924 and measure 1.6 linear feet. Found within the papers are scattered biographical materials and correspondence; project files for the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, the American Artist's Committee of One Hundred, and the exhibition of works by American Artists at the Luxembourg Museum in Paris; three additional scrapbooks; printed material; and photographs.
Scattered biographical material includes membership cards and an autobiographical essay. Correspondence is with colleagues and related generally to receptions and events, including an invitation to the launch of the U. S. Battleship Arizona. There are one or two letters each from Frank W. Benson, Edwin Howland Blashfield, Royal Cortissoz, Walter Gay, and Whitney Warren.
Three series of project files document Coffin's work for the Fine Arts Division of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, the American Artists' Committee of One Hundred that established a relief fund for families of French soldier-artists, and an exhibition of artwork by American Artists at the Luxembourg Museum in Paris. Files contain a variety of materials, such as letters, drafts of reports, meeting minutes, photographs, catalogs and brochures, and other materials. There are two oversized scrapbooks for the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition. The files for the Luxembourg Museum exhibition include a letter signed by Louis Bouché, Bernard Gussow, Alfred H. Maurer, Joseph Stella, and William Zorach protesting the exclusion of their work.
Three additional scrapbooks contain clippings of articles written by Coffin when he was employed as an art critic for The New York Evening Post, Harper's Weekly, and The New York Sun.
Printed material consists of miscellaneous clippings primarily about Coffin, programs from American Rights Committee exercises, a Dixie Club of New York concert, a Lotos Club concert, the Lafayette-Marne Anniversary exercises, and souvenir tickets to various art-related events including several Paris Salon Vernissage events sponsored by the Société des Artistes Francais.
Photographs include an album of photographs of Coffin, various family members, and residences; a photograph of Coffin posing with an unidentified group of his colleagues; and photographs of family friends. Project files also contain photographs.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1916-1922 (2 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1915-1924 (8 folders; Box 1)
Series 3: Project File for the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, 1900-1901 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 4: Project File for the American Artists' Committee of One Hundred, 1914-1923 (14 folders; Box 1)
Series 5: Project File for the Exhibition of Works by American Artists at the Luxembourg Museum in Paris, 1919-1920 (11 folders; Box 1)
Series 6: Scrapbooks of Clippings of Articles Written by Coffin, 1886-1913 (0.3 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1912-1924 (6 folders; Box 1)
Series 8: Photographs, 1905-1923 (10 folders; Box 1)
Biographical Note:
William Anderson Coffin (1855-1925) of New York City was a landscape and figure painter and art critic. He organized several notable exhibitions and art-related charitable events for relief work in post-World War I France.
William Anderson Coffin was born near Pittsburgh in Allegheny, Pennsylvania on January 31, 1855, the son of Isabella C. Anderson and James Gardiner Coffin. Coffin studied art and graduated from Yale University in 1874. Three years later, he left for Paris and studied with academic artist Léon Bonnat. Coffin exhibited in the Paris Salons of 1879, 1880, and 1882.
In 1882, Coffin moved to New York City, participating in many exhibitions, including at the National Academy of Design. He also wrote as an art critic for Scribner's and Harper's Weekly, among other publications. From 1886 to 1891, he was art critic for The New York Evening Post, and was art editor at the New York Sun from 1896 to 1901.
Coffin directed the Fine Arts Division of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo from 1900 to 1901, and participated as a member of the New York Advisory Board of the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915. Coffin was also president of the American Artists' Committee of One Hundred that established a relief fund for families of French soldier-artists. For this charitable work, Coffin received the medal of the Legion of Honor from the French government in 1917.
Coffin was a member of various arts organizations including the Lotos Club, the Architectural League of New York, and the National Academy of Design. His artwork is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Municipal Gallery of Venice, Italy, the Albright Art Gallery, and the Brooklyn Museum.
William Anderson Coffin died on October 26, 1925 in New York City.
Provenance:
The William Anderson Coffin papers were donated in 1970 by Stewart Klonis to whom the papers were given by Mrs. DeWitt M. Lockman of Manorville, Long Island, New York.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
The William Anderson Coffin papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Walter Gay papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Walter Gay papers, 1870-1937, 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
