August Gay Original CA Society of Six Colorist Vintage Plein Air American Post Impressionist Landscape Oil Painting

August Gay, (1890-1949), (aka Auguste Francois Pierre Gay); was born in Rabou, France in 1890. He immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1900 settling in Alameda, California around 1901. Gay attended classes locally at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Together with Selden Gile, Gay formed the “Society of Six” painting group, a loosely knit band of painters who shared expenses, ideas, and an appreciation of Fauvist color sensibilities. (Selden Gile, August Gay, Bernard Von Eichmann, Louis Siegriest, and William Clapp).  

The group was active in the Bay Area from 1918, until about 1930. Though Gay had moved to Monterey in 1919, he was an active contributor to the Six and exhibited regularly with them at the Oakland Art Gallery until 1926. During the last ten years of his life he was a furniture designer and custom framer for the Monterey Guild; (the furniture in the San Juan Bautista Mission is from his shop). August Gay lived in Monterey and Carmel where he worked at Oliver’s art supply store and continued to paint until he died in 1949. 

His works were exhibited at the San Francisco Art Association in 1916 and 1921, the Del Monte Art Gallery in Monterey in 1919, the Beaux Arts Gallery in San Francisco in 1929, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1935, the Oakland Museum in 1972 and 1981, and the Monterey Museum in 1993 (solo). They can also be found in the State Museum Resource Center (Sacramento), the Oakland Museum, Pacific Grove High School (mural), and the Monterey Peninsula Museum.

August Francois Pierre Gay
(1890-1949)
American, California
Oil on Canvas, Attached to Board
Northern California Colorist Landscape
Measurements showing from the frame, are approximately 
10 1/3"X 13 1/3"
In frame, the painting measures approximately 14.6" X 17 3/4"
The painting still sealed reverse, in the original gallery frame
No overpaints, no restoration
Signed lower right corner
The frame very good condition; small chip on the very top of the frame, toward the back. (Unseen from front, only top of back, and minimal).
The painting is in excellent to mint original condition

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