Sandy Beach, Cohasset, 1860

Winkworth Gay was a celebrated Boston artist who was one of the first Americans to espouse the Barbizon style of landscape painting. After training under Robert Weir at Westpoint, Gay spent four years in Europe, where he studied with Constant Tryon in Paris. Gay’s subsequent landscapes combine the atmospheric Barbizon manner that he learned in France with the subtle color schemes of the American Luminists. At the Boston Athenaeum during the 1850’s, Gay’s paintings were exhibited alongside works by European masters such as Millet, Hunt, and Diaz as proud reminders that Boston artists were well-versed in European trends. Gay also