Charmed Couple: The Art and Life of Walter & Matilda Gay

A fabulous book if you love interiors, France, chateaux, watercolors and tales of Henry James' The Golden Age. Matilda and Walter Gay knew James and Wharton and all the other 'grandees' of their time. And Walter painted the interior of their mansions in New York and Paris. Fun to see the many old photos with the watercolors side-by-side of those interiors-heavly illustrated in color. Matilda Gay kept a diary of everyone who was anyone.

A Charmed Couple introduced me to Walter and Matilda Gay, American expatriates in France in the late 19th and early 20th century. Walter Gay was a painter, primarily of interiors of chateaus and grand houses of France and America. Matilda was a society hostess and dedicated diarist. Both were unknown to me before I received this book as a gift (and a very fine gift it makes, too). The Gays were friends with important artists, writers and political figures, as well as English and French aristrocrats and many wealthy, international socialites. Quoting often from Matilda Gay's diary with its witty, observant and often acerbic comments on people she knew, author William Rieder gives brief, anecdotal accounts of the Gays' friendships with a diverse group that included writers Henry James and Edith Wharton, the artist John Singer Sargent, Robert and Mildred Bliss (who later created a beautiful home and garden at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.), Henry Clay Frick and his daughter Helen (whose house is preserved as the Frick Collection in New York City). The text is interesting and witty, the reproductions of Walter Gay's paintings of beautiful rooms and views are delightful, and the book design is attractive. A Charmed Couple, as a whole, is a lovely, frothy concoction -- fun to read and to look at.

Mr. Rieder has fashioned a fascinating account, both artistically and sociologically, about a farily obscure artist and his wife. As world travellers they both entertained and were feted by John Singer Sargent, Edith Wharton, Henry James, Elsie de Woolfe, Henry Frick Clay and an entire bouquet of royalty. They seem to have helped define the great Golden Years before the First World War changed everything. Mr. Rieder has effortlessly captured this with both wit and insight. It's handsomely produced with many photographs and images of Gay's work. I've found it to be a perfect gift item.