COUTTS, GORDON (1868-1937)

“Boats On A Beach” (c.1893)
Watercolour & bodycolour
22 x 34.5m
Signed lower left
*private collection, Sydney
 
Coutts is a forgotten Australian Impressionist. He studied at the famous Glasgow School Arts (with several of the Glasgow Boys) & Academie Julien before moving to Melbourne in the early 1890s to study at the National Art School. In 1896 he moved to Sydney where he was an art teacher at the Art Society of NSW until 1902. During this time he regularly exhibited to great acclaim at both the Victorian Artists' Society & Royal Art Society in Sydney. He relocated to San Francisco in 1902 with his wife, where he became a prominent member of the Bohemian Club. Despite thriving in the US, he travelled regularly to Europe, regularly exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London & Paris Salon, and was visited by Sir Winston Churchill & Sir John Lavery in his home in Palm Springs. His wife divorced him in 1918 because his "artistic temperament was too much for her... and she could not live happily with a hermit". His works are represented at National galleries in the UK, USA & Australia.