Edward Gay

American (1837-1928)

Gay was born in Dublin, Ireland and immigrated with his family to Albany, New York, after the Potato Famine in 1848. By 1858, Gay was exhibiting at the National Academy of Design, at the age of twenty one. Gay went on to have a long and successful career, exhibiting at the Brooklyn Art Association, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Corcoran Gallery and the Art Institute of Chicago among others.

In 1868, Gay moved his family to Mt. Vernon, New York, and began to paint in the Hudson River tradition. His style changed after an 1881 trip to Europe, as he incorporated a new sense of color and light into his works.