1. Valuable Painting from 1928 by August Gay Found
August Gay painted this painting of Hattan Ranch in 1928. The fauvist
colors and great composition make it a real gem that Los Angeles art
dealer Steve Stern has just found, languishing unappreciated in a rural
home.
So, at this point, what do Bonhams and Butterfield’s Auction House,
vintage painting collectors and the best California Impressionist art
dealers in the West all have in common? Well, other than a love for great
paintings, they know and use Scott M. Haskins and Fine Art
Conservation laboratories when wonderful paintings like this one
surface and need cleaning and other careful and quality painting
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Hattan Ranch is in great
condition, its just in need
of a careful cleaning…
and of course a proper
varnish. If you were
buying this painting, would you use a black light to inspect it? What
2. would you see on this Society of Six Fauvist painting? Do you
understand the importance of this step in due diligence when buying
art, antiques and collectibles? For more info on using UV lights to inspect
paintings, CLICK HERE
Known as "Gus" Gay, was part of the Society of Six, a group in the Bay
Area of California in the 1920s led by Selden Gile that espoused a new
style of painting focused on bright colors and impressionist techniques.
It was a rebellion against the prevalent sombre tonalism and decorative
aesthetics of William Keith and Arthur Mathews.
Much of his painting style was Cubist inspired and geometric, and he did
not receive much national recognition until the 1950s. In addition to
painting landscapes and coastal scenes, many of them on cigar box tops,
he was also a muralist, etcher, and furniture builder.
Gay was born in Rabou, near Gap, France between Marseilles and Turin
and from this background, brought a strong appreciation of French
Impressionism to the Society of Six although he was not a part of the
Paris art scene. He is credited with having an innate sense of color and a
basic happiness that transferred to his bright, cheerful paintings.
He emigrated with his father and siblings to Oakland, California in 1900.
However, the mother stayed in France, and Gay never saw her again. At
age sixteen, he developed tuberculosis and spent three years
recuperating on his uncle's ranch in the Imperial Valley. During that
time, he did much sketching and developed a commitment to art, but he
never regained much energy and had a frail constitution. He was short,
about five feet four inches, wiry, and seemed totally oblivious to most
everything but his painting.
He met Selden Gile when he bought bricks from Gladding McBean,
where Gile was employed, and in 1910, moved in with Gile to escape his
very crowded, uncomfortable family home. He worked menial jobs
around the city including at a fruit cannery, a warehouse, and at the
Palace Hotel Restaurant as a food checker.
3. He never seemed to have enough money and often wore Gile's clothing.
The two lived together for nearly a decade, although Gile, who gave
financial support to his friend, was often impatient with what he
regarded as Gay's slow pace. After 1919, Gay lived in Monterey but
continued to exhibit with the Six at the Oakland Art Gallery.
In Monterey, he shared a studio with Clayton Price, and living in Carmel
during the last ten years of his life, worked as a furniture designer and
custom framer until his death on March 9, 1948.
Gay's art education was minimal. He attended occasional classes at the
California School of Arts and Crafts and later took night school at the
California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. In 1916, he entered his
first exhibition.
His work is in the collection of the Oakland Museum and Monterey High
School where he did a mural.
Source: Nancy Boas, Society of Six
Fine Art
Conservation
Laboratories and
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