\ > 'ty*^ Grt.5+\ + QZOG YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY From the Library of ANNIE BURR JENNINGS the gift of ANNIE BURR LEWIS WALTER GAY WALTER GAY Paintings of French Interiors EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES ON THE PLATES BY ALBERT EUGENE GALLATIN Fifty Illustrations NEW YORK E. P. Dutton and Company MCMXX COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. The Green Room. 2. The Yellow Bed. 3. Park Interior. 4. 'Musee Correr, Venice. 5. Salon of Chateau de la Roberts au, near Strasbourg. 6. The Red and White Sofa. 1. Park Interior. 8. Boudoir — Chateau de Chdalk. y. The Long Gallery, Chateau de Courance, Seine-et-Marne, France. 10. Room in Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Park. 11. The Orcheslra. 12. The Ghosl Room, Chateau de Fortokeau. 13. Room in the Villa Sylvia. 14. The Commode, Chateau du Breau. 15. The Palazzo Barbaro, Venice. 16. The Open Window (Water-colour). 17. Blue and White. 18. The Boudoir, Chateau de Commarin, Burgundy. 19. Musee Correr, Venice. 20. Chez He lieu, Park. 2 1 . Boudoir of Madame de Maintenon. 22. The Blue Room, Chateau du Breau (Water-colour). LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 2 3 . Grand Salon of Former Hotel de Chaulnes, Park. 24. Park Interior. 25. Interior, Musee Carnavalet, Park. 26. Boudoir of Queen Marie Antoinette, Palace of Fontainebleau. 27. The Yellow Room. 28. Les Vases, Chateau du Breau. 29. Porcelains, Chateau du Breau. 30. Salon des Aigles, Hotel Crillon, Park. 31. Tapeslry, Palace of Fontainebleau. 32. Le Canape, Chateau du Breau. 33. Chinokeries (Water-colour). 34. Moat of the Chateau du Breau (Water-colour). 3 5 . The Yellow Sofa. 36. Persiennes Fermees. 37. Interior of House at MagnanviUe, Seine- et-Oke, France. 38. The Regence Clock. 39. The White Room, Chateau de Fortokeau. 40. Tapkseries Roses. 41. The Library, Chateau du Breau. 42. Park Interior. 43. The Yellow Chair. AA. The Window. 45. Chateau du Breau. A6. Chambre Verte. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 47. The Library. 48. Dining-room of the Chateau du Breau. 49. Musee Jacquemart Andre, Park. 50. Tapestried Room. WALTER GAY O, it can not be done. The true artist can never be led, nor indeed, can he even direct himself. The drawings which Aubrey Beardsley made at cur rent theatrical productions, at the request of the editor of a London paper, for the most part were futile. His genius refused to be led. When Mr Sargent follows his own inclination and wishes to amuse himself, he gives us brilliant and dexterous water-colours, or such a delightful painting as his portrait of Stevenson, seen strid ing across a room. It is in such pictures as these that we see Mr Sargent at his best, and not when, with no gusto, but solely to earn ten thousand guineas for the Red Cross, he limns the features of President Wilson. Mr Walter Gay always paints with keen relish. I feel sure that he is never happier than when seated at his easel in an Eighteenth Century room. I doubt very much if Mr Gay could be prevailed upon to paint a room with red wall paper and gas logs, no matter how large the cheque, or how worthy the charity. At any rate, such a picture would certainly be a complete failure, for the artist's heart would not be in his work. I have intimated that Mr Gay is never happier than when indoors, but I do not wish to give the impression that Mr Gay's taste in this respect is at all that of Charles Lamb, who loved indoors as much Walter Gay as Mr Max Beerbohm loves Town. Indeed, Mr Gay is very fond of the country, and I feel certain that he is always glad when summer arrives and he begins to think about closing his house in Paris and moving down to the beautiful old Chateau du Breau, near Fontaine bleau, of which he has given us many delightful records. Mr Gay loves the stones of old Paris, but he is equally enamoured of the verdure of rural France. The freshness and fragrance of the country in early summer are as much appreciated by him as the most seductive boiserie in the most beautiful hotel in Paris. Some decorative oval panels of his, painted in the formal gardens of the Chateau du Breau, are very engaging. Moreover, Mr Gay is one of the best shots in France. The fact that Mr Gay loves light and air and sunshine must be apparent to all intelligent observers of his inimitable paintings. He has such a predilection for rooms flooded with sunshine and for vestibules with tall windows opening out onto sunny gardens, that this passion for light and air almost makes his art related to the Impressionists. From these paintings of interiors one can also dis cern the artist's love of people, of cultivated people, even though the apartments are always destitute of human beings. This subtle power of implication certainly bespeaks a very sensitive and a very great art. I believe it was Degas, who drew the human figure as no other artist of his time drew it, who said that there were hundreds of people in a certain famous modern English picture of a scene at a race track, but that there was no crowd. A true artist, he said, sug gests a crowd with six figures. Well, Walter Gay, a keen student of physiognomy, gives us a remarkable portrait of the owner of a cer tain boudoir, a portrait in which all her tastes and her mode of life are apparent, but without letting us see even as much of her as one of her gloves. This would be quite unnecessary and would strike a false note. In comparison, how crude a means of suggestion is a [2] Walter Gay garment thrown over a chair in a certain lithograph of an interior by Lautrec ! A masterpiece certainly, but in lack of subtlety, by compari son, almost Zorn- or Zola-like! Mr Gay occasionally places a bunch of spring flowers on a table — and he paints flowers with a rare charm suggestive of Fantin — or perhaps there is a fire crackling in the hearth, but that is the only direct evidence of human occupancy. "For me," writes Mr Arthur Symons, one of the most illumi nating of living critics of the arts, "cities are like people, with souls and temperaments of their own." How even more true this is of houses and rooms! Certainly the rooms which Mr Gay has so beautifully portrayed possess souls and temperaments. His portraits of rooms — and that is what they are — are portraits full of deeply sympathetic insight. Mr Gay has been enamoured with the rare beauty of that wonderful epoch, the Eighteenth Century in France, and by the memories suggested and awakened by these old rooms, and he has painted them with a heart full of appreciation and love. Until recent years, I know of no artist who has chosen to paint a room entirely for the sake of the room and its adornments. Hither to, as with Vermeer of Delft, whose interiors are the most beauti fully painted in the whole range of art, and with Hogarth, whose stately and spacious Georgian rooms are also delineated in a masterly manner, a room was painted largely to serve as a stage setting, as it were, for the picture. Mr Gay has been the virtual founder of a school of painting, and many interiors similar in subject to his are to be found each year in the Paris Salon. None of his followers, however, possess his genius or accomplishment ; occasionally, in fact, their pictures remind one a little of the average drawing of the architect or the decorator, devoid of all charm. M. Jacques Blanche, known principally as a portrait painter, has executed a number of interiors which possess much of the charm of Walter Gay. Writing with much tact, about Blanche's pictures, Mr T. Martin Wood says [3] Walter Gay that the "very happiness of nature itself seems descending to the breakfast table," and that "we are not separated from the spring morning by the French windows; all things are lyrical indoors as well as out, and the light on cups and tea-spoons is as silvery as the dew." M. Vilhelm Hammershoi, a Dane, is another artist who has success fully essayed the interior, and M. Maurice Lobre, a Frenchman, is still another. Although they always contain figures, in many of his paint ings I feel sure that Sir William Orpen has certainly been as much interested in the room he was painting as in the man whose room it was — if not more so. Full of character are his rooms, many of them sombre and sometimes rather depressing, very British and very comfortable. Mr Gay always suggests in a subtle manner the personality of the former, as well as the present inhabitants, of the charming old apart ments which he has so delightfully delineated. These rooms are full of human interest. It is not necessary for our enjoyment to get even a glimpse of the occupants of these rooms, because we can feel their presence. Far are these apartments from being deserted. Someone has only this moment stepped into the adjoining chamber, or out into the blaze of sunshine that comes in at a low French window. Regard that picture of a dining-room closely and it will not be long before some people enter, intent upon their dejeuner. No, it were absurd to say that these rooms are deserted. As well say that certain marvellously proportioned state salons in one of the royal chateaux are empty and bare because they have been stripped of furniture and paintings and tapestries. As if a room with such proportions and such boiseries could ever look unfurnished and bare ! It is not only in the decorations of the rooms and in the Caen stone walls and marble tilings of the vestibules, as well as in the parquet flooring of salons, that we find aesthetic delight in contemplating Mr Gay's paintings of interiors, but also in the beautiful contours of the meubles: bergeres, covered with old faded silks, tabourets, commodes, [4] ft'' y: Walter Gay consoles, carved and gilded tables of the Regence. On certain walls hang great tapestries, almost as brilliant in colour as the day they were woven, on other walls hang paintings from the brush of Boucher or Fragonard, or sanguine drawings by Watteau, doubly alluring by virtue of their striped blue mats and ancient gilt frames. Scattered about, sometimes in great profusion, but always arranged with un erring taste, we see superb old Chinese porcelain, mounted frequently in carved and gilded bronze of the time of Louis XV, rare jades, glo rious red lacquer and lacquer of black and gold, spirited busts of marble or terra cotta, crystal chandeliers and candelabra, ormolu clocks and many other objects of great beauty. The rendering of all these various materials is wholly admirable. In a word, in these paint ings we have preserved the very essence of the art and the charm of the epoch, in which taste seemed to have been almost a matter of instinct. The gaiety and cheerfulness of these rooms have been trans ferred to canvas in as exquisite a manner as nature's lyrical moods have been interpreted by Whistler and Monet. In the years to come, when the half dozen of Mr Gay's paintings which hang in the Musee du Luxembourg have been rehung in the Louvre, it will be time enough to write of the artist's artistic evolu tion, of his earlier genre pictures and of his 'prentice days in the studio of Bonnat. Suffice it to say that Mr Gay was born in Hingham, Massa chusetts, of old American stock, in 1856, that he has lived in Paris since 1876, where he has been a constant exhibitor at the Salon, that he is represented in several of the world's most important museums and that in 1906 he was created an officer of the Legion of Honor. By virtue of their painter-like quality, breadth of treatment, style, masterly values and very refined colour, these pictures will always be regarded as the work of a sincere and genuine artist. Every object is in its proper plane and all the rooms are bathed in atmosphere: one can walk around in these rooms. Mr Gay's technical equipment is that of a true artist, and one learned in his craft. I refer not only to [5] Walter Gay his oil paintings, but also to the artist's joyous water-colours, which are so marvellously washed in, so vigorous and so transparent. Here, indeed, are technical masterpieces of a very high order. II. In this introductory essay I have dwelt entirely upon the great artistic worth and charm of these paintings: I have failed to point out the practical use which the plates in this album can be put to by the architect and the interior decorator, not to mention the person contemplating building a French house. I suppose, as a matter of fact, that this will probably be the chief appeal of the book; however, I do not regret the omission — no need to hang out a bush. Although I have decided to confine my selection of subjects almost exclusively to French interiors of the Eighteenth Century, as being the most characteristic examples of Mr Gay's work, I have also included three pictures painted in Venice and one in Boston. The exhibition of Mr Gay's paintings which was held in New York in the winter of 1920 created widespread interest, attracting even more attention than that which was held seven years previ ously. The gallery in which the pictures were shown was constantly thronged with admiring crowds, which included many architects and also teachers from various schools of design. No doubt this ex hibition will have a large share in further stimulating the growing interest in French art in this country, which some years ago received impetus from the installation of the Hoentschel collection, rich in French decorative art, in the Metropolitan Museum. I believe that a widespread and intelligent appreciation in America of French art would be a powerful agent in strengthening the already close bonds of friendship which exist between the two great sister republics. May this volume play an important part in bringing this about ! A. E. Gallatin [6] PLATES 1. THE GREEN ROOM A Louis XVI room in the Chateau du Breau, Seine-et-Marne, France, the property of the artist. The woodwork is painted pale green, with ornaments of faded gold. The Louis XV commode is of black lacquer; on it is a Louis XV terra cotta group of the school of Clodian. Owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. * , #y I ¦ I tf'&S*-*-* frp'-*' 2. THE YELLOW BED A room in the Chateau du Breau, Seine-et-Marne, France, the property of the artiSt. The furniture {Louis XVI) k covered with green and yellow silk. Owned by M. Felix WildenStein, New York. frwtt&g&WftfiM-; 3. PARIS INTERIOR A room in the former apartment of Pierre Decourcelle, Place Frangois Premier. The walls are ivory white. The furniture k Louk XV. French Eighteenth Century drawings are on the walls. Owned by Henry S. Lehr, Esq., Park. 4. MUSfiE CORRER, VENICE A small room in the Museum. The commode k of red lacquer. The chairs are Portuguese. Yellow silk hangings are on the walls, with a design in green and gold. 5. SALON OF CHATEAU DE LA ROBERTSAU, NEAR STRASBOURG The furniture k all of the time of Louk XVI. The bokeries are white and gold. The tapeStries are Aubusson. Owned by la Comtesse de Pourtales, Park. 6. THE RED AND WHITE SOFA A room in the apartment of the artiB, 11 rue de I'Universite, Park {ancient Hotel de Chaulnes). On the walls are paintings by Guardi and other Eighteenth Century mailers, with drawings of the same period. A Louk XV sofa with its original covering of Striped red and cream coloured velvet. On the right a Louk XV table and chair. Owned by Chauncey McCormick, Esq. , Chicago. 7. PARIS INTERIOR View of Mr Edward Tuck 's apartment, 82 avenue des Champs Elysees, Park. A Regency console, flanked by two fauteuils of Beauvak tapeStry. A Gobelin tapeStry on the wall and part of another seen through a doorway. Owned by Edward Tuck, Esq., Park. ^^¦¦B ^™ 8. BOUDOIR— CHATEAU DE CHAALIS The tapeftry k after a cartoon by Boucher, on the floor k a Savonnerie carpet. Owned by Mrs James W. Wadsworth, Washington. 9. THE LONG GALLERY, CHATEAU DE COURANCE, SEINE-ET-MARNE, FRANCE The tapeStries are Louk XVI, after Watteau and Lancret. The cabinets on the left are by Boule (Louk XIV); they are surmounted by bronzes of the same epoch. The commodes on the right are Louk XV. 10. ROOM IN MUSfiE DES ARTS DfiCORATIFS, PARIS One of the Louk XVI rooms. A white marble mantel-piece. Owned by la Marquise de Chaponay, Park. V 11. THE ORCHESTRA A room (not usually shown to the public) in the Palace of Fontainebleau. The furniture k of the Firft Empire. The paintings are by Nicasseus, a Seven teenth Century Dutch artiSi. 12. THE GHOST ROOM, CHATEAU DE FORTOISEAU A Louk XV room, with an over-mantel of the Regency period. The furniture is Louk XVI. The woodwork k painted graykh white. 13. ROOM IN THE VILLA SYLVIA The villa of Mr Ralph W. Curtk, Saint- Jean-sur- Mer, France. The walls are painted cream colour. The mantel-piece k of white marble of the English Georgian period. Owned by Ralph W. Curtk, Esq., Saint-Jean-sur-Mer, France. 14. THE COMMODE, CHATEAU DU BREAU A room in the Chateau du Breau, Seine-et-Marne, France, the property of the artiSt. A Louk XV commode. The curtains are yellow, with faded red. The bokeries are cream coloured. 15. THE PALAZZO BARBARO, VENICE Built in 1329 and bought by the Barbarini family in 1413. Now owned by Ralph W. Curtk, Esq. The wall paintings are by Giordino, Piazzeta, and Fontebasso. The walls and ceiling are cream coloured. Owned by Museum of Fine Arts, BoSton. 16. THE OPEN WINDOW (Water-colour) A window overlooking the court-yard of the Chateau du Breau, Seine-et- Marne, France, the property of the artiSt. Owned by Robert W. Bliss, Esq., Park. 17- BLUE AND WHITE The dining-room of Mrs Josiah Bradlee, BoSton. Blue and white Chinese por celain. An Englkh Eighteenth Century mantel-piece. Owned by Musee du Luxembourg, Park. 18. THE BOUDOIR, CHATEAU DE COMMARIN, BURGUNDY The residence of Count Arthur de Voguea. The Louk XV boiseries are painted red. 19. MUSfiE CORRER, VENICE The commode k of green lacquer; the walls are covered with painted silk with old yellow ground. The paintings are by Guardi, Longhi and Rosalba. 20. CHEZ HELLEU, PARIS A room in the house of the artiSt Paul Helleu, Park. Louk XV mantel-piece and furniture, excepting FirSt Empire table in foreground. The walls are cream coloured. BBNHBBBSBBs 21. BOUDOIR OF MADAME DE MAINTENON A room in the Palace of Fontainebleau. Thk room was decorated later under Louk XV. The panels were painted by Peyrotte. Owned by Clarence H. Mackay, Esq., New York. 22. THE BLUE ROOM, CHATEAU DU BREAU (Water-colour) A room in the Chateau du Breau, Seine-et-Marne, France, the property of the artiSt. The bed and walls are covered with blue and white toile de Jouy. The furniture and mantel-piece are Louk XVI. The furniture and walls are painted cream colour. Owned by Mrs William K. Vanderbilt, New York. 23. GRAND SALON OF FORMER HOTEL DE CHAULNES, PARIS Now the apartment of the artiSt, 11 rue de I'Universite. The tapeSlries are Louk XVI. A Regence mantel-piece and large table. The reSl of the furniture k Louk XV. The window on the right looks out upon a garden. 24. PARIS INTERIOR The salon in the hotel of la Comtesse de Fitz- James, rue ConSlantine, Park. A painting by Vigee-Lebrun with drawings by Watteau and Boucher on either side. The bokeries are whitkh gray. A Regence commode and Louk XV chairs. 25. INTERIOR, MUSEE CARNAVALET, PARIS A room formerly in the house of Madame de Sevigne. Owned by Sir Joseph Duveen, London. 26. BOUDOIR OF QUEEN MARIE ANTOINETTE, PALACE OF FONTAINEBLEAU Decorated, in several tones of gold, by Rousseau de la Rothiere. The over-doors are groups in Stucco. The floor k of mahogany. Owned by Mrs William D. Sloane, New York. 27. THE YELLOW ROOM A room in the former Hotel de Chaulnes, 11 rue de I'Universite, Park, now the apartment of the artiSt. The walls are lemon yellow in colour. Eighteenth Century drawings and paintings are on the walls. A Regence clock and table; Louk XVI chairs. Owned by Miss Anne Jennings, New York. .. . M. /A ~ .. «L. J Ir 28. LES VASES, CHATEAU DU BRfiAU Antechamber of the chateau of the artiSt, Seine-et-Marne, France. The Louk XVI vases are terra cotta. The door opens onto the park. The walls are cream coloured; the floor k of black and white marble. -.«*• zZ **^*.*l ^JBJS-».W.iZ idj£^m.. AxfcJVjfca*. 29. PORCELAINS, CHATEAU DU BREAU The chateau of the artiSt, Seine-et-Marne, France. The bokeries are of creamy white, relieved by pale green. The floor k covered with a green carpet. A console of the Regence, painted white; aLouk XV chair. Owned by Clarence L. Hay, Esq., New York. A^^x* „,* < **Jg& 30. SALON DES AIGLES, HOTEL CRILLON, PARIS In thk room some of the meetings of the Peace Conference were held in 1919- Louk XVI decorations of white and gold. Louk XVI furniture, excepting a Regence table. 31. TAPESTRY, PALACE OF FONTAINEBLEAU The Stag Hunt by Oudry, showing Louk XV; a Gobelin tapeStry. The fur niture is Louk XV. *-, i m\ si -f i i 42. PARIS INTERIOR The dining-room (Louk XV) of the dramatic writer Pierre Decourcelle. The walls are cream coloured. 43. THE YELLOW CHAIR A room in the Chateau du Breau, Seine-et-Marne, France, the property of the artiSt. The walls are gray-white ; the furniture k Louk XV. Owned by the Art Institute of Chicago. 44. THE WINDOW A room in the Chateau du Breau, Seine-et-Marne, France, the property of the artiSt. The walls are gray-white; the curtains are pale yellow and faded red. Owned by the Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. 45. CHATEAU DU BREAU The chateau of the artiSt, Seine-et-Marne, France. Thk room contains por traits of the Gramont family, to whom the chateau formerly belonged. The bokeries are a light gray. The sofa k yellow; the desk u Louk XV; the mantel-piece k of gray-blue marble. Owned by Musee du Luxembourg, Park. A6. CHAMBRE VERTE Interior of a Parkian hotel on the avenue du Trocadero. The bokeries are faint green and the curtains are green. The furniture k Louk XVI. 47- THE LIBRARY Interior of a Parkian hotel on the rue St. -Dominique (property ofM. Georges Pannier). The woodwork k of a greenkh colour; the desk k of the Regence period. Owned by Mrs William K. Vanderbilt, New York. 48. DINING-ROOM OF THE CHATEAU DU BREAU The chateau of the artiSt, Seine-et-Marne, France. The bokeries of thk room are unusual, being designs of palm trees; the curtains are red and of the same period as the bokeries (Regence); the floor k of black and white tiles. 49. MUSfiE JACQUEMART ANDRE, PARIS The Regence table k of black lacquer; the portrait k by Nattier; panels of Beauvak tapeStry are on the walls. Owned by Ralph C. Johnson, Esq., Washington. 50. TAPESTRIED ROOM A house in Park (15 avenue des Champs Elysees) in which a loan exhibition was held. The tapeSlries are Aubusson, of the Louk XVI period. The bureau de dame at the left k also Louk XVI; the table in the centre of the room k of the transition period between Louk XV and Louk XVI. The table on the right k Louk XV, as are the tapeStried covered sofa and chairs. Format and decorations by bruce rogers. nine hundred and fifty copies printed by william edwin rudge, new york OCTOBER, 1920. 3 9002