Born in Glasgow, Scotland on Oct. 3, 1868, Gordon Coutts studied art in Glasgow, London, and in Paris at Académie Julian under Lefebvre, Fleury, and Rossi.
After his stay in Paris, he moved to Melbourne, Australia where he was an instructor at the Art Society of New South Wales for several years during the late 1890s. Upon returning to London in 1899, he exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1902 he and his wife, Alice, moved to San Francisco where he became an active member and exhibitor of the Bohemian Club while maintaining a home across the bay in Piedmont.
An itinerant globe trotter, he traveled to remote places in search of subject matter. During his early period his work embraced Tonalism; whereas, his style later changed to the brighter, colorful palette of Impressionism.
Ill health necessitated his move to a drier climate, and about 1925 he settled in Palm Springs, CA. There he built a French-Moroccan style castle where he remained until his death of tuberculosis on Feb. 21, 1937.
EXHIBITIONS:
Del Monte Art Gallery, 1907-10
Berkeley Art Association, 1908
Bohemian Club, 1909, 1912-14
Alaska-Yukon Expo (Seattle), 1909 (gold medal)
Paris Salon, 1913 (gold medal)
PPIE, 1915 (medal)
Calif. Artists, Golden Gate Park Museum, 1915
Stendahl Gallery (LA), 1925, 1927
Calif. State Fair, 1930 (gold medal).
COLLECTIONS:
Oakland Museum
De Young Museum
Cleveland Museum
Melbourne Art Gallery
Nat'l Art Gallery (Sydney)
Palm Springs Desert Museum
Henry Gallery (Univ. of Washington)
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers (Fielding, Mantle); Artists of the American West (Doris Dawdy); Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs (Bénézit, E); Southern California Artists (Nancy Moure); American Art Annual 1909-21; Who's Who in American Art 1936-38 (obituary).
The following information has been confirmed by David Korst, grandson of the artist.
Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Gordon Coutts is best known for desert landscape painting, especially of California.
He began his art studies in Glasgow and continued in London and in Paris at the Julian Academy under Jules Lefebvre. He married artist Alice Gray, whom he met in Paris, and they spent several years in Melbourne, Australia. He was also an instructor at the Art Society of New South Wales in Sydney. In 1899, he exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. In the early 1900s, he and Alice moved to the San Francisco area, and he became an active member and exhibitor of the Bohemian Club. The couple lived in Piedmont across the Bay.
An itinerant traveler, Coutts went to many remote areas including Africa, and Alice divorced him in 1918 when he was on a safari. He painted throughout the Southwest including Canyon de Chelly. In 1925, because of having tuberculosis, he moved to Palm Springs, California, and built a French Moroccan style castle like ones he had seen in Tangiers.
He died of heart failure in 1937, and his house in Palm Springs still exists there as a small hotel called Korakia.
Gordon Harrower Coutts was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1868. Gordon Coutts studied art in Glasgow, London, and in Paris at Académie Julian under Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury. After his stay in Paris, he moved to Melbourne, Australia where he was an instructor at the Art Society of New South Wales for several years during the late 1890's. Upon returning to London in 1899, he exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1902 he and his wife moved to San Francisco where he became an active member and exhibitor at the Bohemian Club while maintaining a home across the bay in Piedmont. Gordon Harrower Coutts passed away in 1937.
