Gordon Coutts

Gordon Harrower Coutts[2] (3 October 1868 – 21 February 1937) was a Scottish artist internationally known for his desert landscapes, Moroccan figures, portraits, and nudes. He spent time in Australia, Morocco, and the United States.

Gordon Coutts
Coutts in 1936
Born(1868-10-03)3 October 1868
Aberdeen, Scotland
Died21 February 1937(1937-02-21) (aged 68)
Palm Springs, California, US
OccupationPainter
Spouses
  • Jessie Benson
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1888; div. 1903)​
  • Alice Grey Hobbs
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1904; div. 1917)​
  • Gertrude Russell
    ​
    (m. 1918)​
Children3
Waiting, which was influenced by Tom Roberts (Art Gallery of New South Wales)[1]

Biography

Coutts was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 3 October 1868. He began his art studies at the Glasgow School of Art in 1881, where he became friends with the Irish painter John Lavery, before venturing south to study in London at the Royal Academy. He continued his studies at the Académie Julian, Paris, under Jules Joseph Lefebvre and Adolphe Déchenaud.[3] He went to Australia with his brother David, and continued his studies at the National Gallery School in Melbourne from 1891 to 1893, becoming a teacher immediately afterwards.[4] After this, he taught at the Art Society of New South Wales in Sydney.[5] During his time in Australia, he had regular exhibits with the Victorian Artists Society and the Art Society of NSW.[4]

Coutts moved to the United States in late 1902, first to Omaha, Nebraska,[6][7] and then to San Francisco, where he became a member of the Bohemian Club.[4] Coutts and his wife Alice, also a painter, purchased land across the Bay in Oakland in 1907,[8] and he was later recorded as living in Piedmont.[9]

From 1910, he and Alice travelled to numerous locations, including Paris, London, and Tangier, Morocco. Their works were exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Paris Salon, and numerous other shows. The outbreak of World War I forced them to return to the US, but Coutts went abroad again in 1916, this time by himself. The couple divorced two years later.[4][10] Soon after, he met Gertrude Russell of Cleveland, Ohio, herself an artist and singer and 30 years younger than him, and they were married in New York.[11][12]

The two of them spent time in Spain and Morocco, regularly making trips to back to the United Kingdom, where he exhibited at various galleries.[4] By 1920, they had returned to the US, settling in Pasadena, California,[13] and in 1924 they moved to Palm Springs, hoping the drier desert air would be better for his tuberculosis.[4][11]

There, they built a Moroccan-style house which they named "Dar Maroc" (also spelt "Dar Marroc"), and Coutts became one of Palm Springs's most famous residents. Dar Maroc played host to numerous celebrities over the years, including John Lavery, Winston Churchill, and Grant Wood.[4][11]

Coutts died in Palm Springs on 21 February 1937 of a heart attack.[14] In 1989, Dar Maroc was converted into a boutique hotel called the Korakia Pensione.[11][15]

Personal life

Coutts married his first wife Jessie Benson in 1888 in Glasgow. She accompanied him to Australia and they had one child, but they separated in 1901, and she sued him for maintenance and child support, with the court awarding her 35 shillings per week for the two of them.[7][16] However, Coutts stopped making payments in October 1901, and when he decided to leave Australia in 1902, he attempted to evade the court order by purchasing a ticket under a false name. He was arrested in Wellington, New Zealand, for violating a recent law making it an offence for someone to avoid a maintenance order by leaving the state.[17] At his trial, his attorney argued that Coutts could not be charged with the crime because when the law was passed, he was no longer a resident of Victoria.[18] Given this, the prosecution conceded and filed a nolle prosequi motion to dismiss the case.[19] The couple formally divorced in March 1903.[7]

His second wife was fellow artist Alice Grey Hobbs (1879–1973), who was a student of his in Melbourne.[20][21] They were married in San Francisco on 28 April 1904.[22][lower-alpha 1]

In early 1918, Coutts was in Tangier, travelling alone, when he received a summons to a court in Reno, Nevada, where Alice had filed for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences (Reno having the reputation of being "the divorce capital of the world"). This caught him by surprise. He rushed home, sending a telegraph message on the way to request a postponement so that he could arrive in time, which he did. He was persuaded not to challenge the request, and Alice remarried a few months later.[21][23]

Gertrude, his third wife, died in December 1937 as a result of an automobile accident.[24] They had two daughters, Jeane and Mary. Jeane went on to become an artist herself, and her daughter Roxanne continued in that tradition.[25]

Notes
  1. It is unclear if she accompanied him to Omaha or if they reunited in San Francisco.

References
  1. "Waiting, circa 1895 by Gordon Coutts". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  2. "Gordon Coutts – Biography". Ask Art. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  3. "Picture of War Carries Veiled Thought". The Pasadena Post. 8 March 1920 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Coutts, Gordon". Glasgow School of Art: Archives & Collections. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  5. Spielmann, Marion Harry, ed. (1898). "The Chronicle of Art—September". The Magazine of Art. Vol. 22. Cassell, Petter & Galpin. p. 628.
  6. Rothery, A. (15 March 1903). "Review of Art". Omaha World-Herald – via Newspapers.com. Mr. Coutts was one of the instructors in the Sydney, Australia art school, and from there he will soon receive several of his most important paintings.
  7. "An Artist Paints His Woes". Omaha World-Herald. 4 June 1903. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com. Gordon Coutts, the Scottish artist who came to Omaha several months ago and opened a studio has filed a petition for divorce in district court. He sets forth that he married his wife, Jessie in Glasgow December 3, 1889, and that she abandoned him February 1, 1901. His wife is a non-resident.
  8. "Deeds Recorded Saturday May 25, 1907". Oakland Tribune. 27 May 1907 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Artists to Exhibit at Idora Park". Berkeley Daily Gazette. 15 October 1908. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Winchell, Anna Cora (27 August 1916). "Artists and Their Work". San Francisco Chronicle – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Niemann, Greg (2006). Palm Springs Legends: Creation of a Desert Oasis. Sunbelt Publications, Inc. pp. 113–115. ISBN 978-0-932653-74-1.
  12. "2 Women Killed". The Desert Sun. 24 December 1937. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Shows Portrait at Studio Here". The Pasadena Post. 1 March 1920. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Gordon Coutts Taken By Death at Studio Here". Palm Springs Limelight-News. 27 February 1937. pp. 1, 18 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Conrad, Tray (10 May 2020). "Desert Beauty Gave Artists Solace, Inspiration". The Desert Sun. p. A21.
  16. "Mr. Gordon Coutts Sued By His Wife". The Chronicle. 4 May 1901 – via Trove. Mr. Gordon Coutts, the well-known artist, was sued at the Fitzroy Court to-day by his wife, Jenny M. Coutts, for the maintenance of herself and child.
  17. "Gordon Coutts Committed". The Age. 12 July 1902. p. 8 – via Trove. Gordon Coutts, a well-known artist, who was arrested in Wellington, New Zealand, and brought to Melbourne on a charge of disobeying an order of the Fitzroy court for the maintenance of his lawful wife, and who was remanded last Tuesday, appeared at the City Court yesterday, when the case was proceeded with ... Coutts had on him £65 odd in cash, a credit note for £700, and a first class ticket to England in the name of "Mr. W. G. Taylor." He had with him also, as compagnon de voyage, a young woman, who was inconsolable at his arrest.
  18. "News of the Day". The Age. 24 July 1902 – via Trove. An interesting point was raised in Criminal Court yesterday in connection with the Gordon Coutts case. Criminal proceedings were taken in this case under the authority of the act which was passed last session, making it an offence for any person against whom a maintenance order has been granted to evade obedience to it by going to reside outside the boundaries of Victoria ... Owing to the unusual course taken in Coutts's case, it is not likely the matter will be taken any further, just now at all events.
  19. "A Nolle Prosequi Entered". Bendigo Advertiser. 16 August 1902. p. 5 – via Trove.
  20. "Alice Grey Hobbs Bolton Coutts – Biography". Ask Art. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  21. "Gordon Coutts, Famous Artist, Divorced". The Leader. 2 February 1918 – via Trove.
  22. "Married". San Francisco Examiner. 1 May 1904. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. "Mrs. Alice Coutts Marries in Piedmont". San Francisco Chronicle. 20 April 1918. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. Millier, Arthur (22 December 1937). "Young Artists Counseled to Explore Beauty Sources in Modern Inventions". Los Angeles Times. p. 21. Lightening the gloom brought by the recent deaths of his wife and daughter, and deepened by the tragic death of his Palm Springs hostess, Mrs. Gordon Coutts, Sir John [Lavery]'s grand-daughter, the Honorable Ann Forbes Sempill, arrived from Scotland just before the auto smash-up. Lavery and the late Gordon Coutts, painter, have been friends since their student days in Paris in the 'seventies.
  25. Warren, Terry (1 October 2019). "Granddaughter of World Renowned Scottish Artist, Gordon Coutts, Launches Inspirational Greeting Card Collection" (Press release). EIN Presswire.
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