Gordon Coutts Painting "Shadow Mountains"

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Exceptional Finds | Ancient, Ethno, Fine Art

By Artemis Fine Arts

Mar 20, 2025

Set Reminder 2025-03-20 10:00:00 2025-03-20 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Finds | Ancient, Ethno, Fine Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-finds-ancient-ethno-fine-art-18151
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• Lot Description
  Gordon Coutts (Scottish, 1868-1937). "Shadow Mountains" oil on canvas, n.d. Signed at lower right. A gorgeous painting by Scottish artist Gordon Coutts featuring a vibrant desert landscape of the American Southwest. A man in a sombrero is shown in the lower right, walking beside a pair of mules as majestic mountains tower above in the background. All is rendered in the soft, glowing light of sunset, the sandy earth boasting pastel hues of peach, lavender, lilac, and jasmine as shadowy blue-green and violet mountain peaks rise against a luminous, canary-yellow sky. The figures are portrayed in magenta, the haziness of the evening sun obfuscating the scene to blur the finer details and create an Impressionistic aesthetic. Size of painting: 29.25" W x 23.5" H (74.3 cm x 59.7 cm); of frame: 36.5" W x 30.5" H (92.7 cm x 77.5 cm)
  
  About the artist: "He was born in the Old Machar district of Aberdeen, Scotland, to a father who gave him a sound trouncing when he was nine for skipping church services so he could complete a sketch. Gordon ran away to Glasgow, where he could study photography and drawing at the Glasgow School of Art, and it was in Glasgow that he met the Irish artist John Lavery, who became his friend and mentor.
  
  In the late 1880s, Gordon followed his brother David to Australia, where they ran a business creating art miniatures in Melbourne. Gordon studied three years at the National Gallery of Victoria art school where he won Honorable Mention for his painting Too Late in the school's Traveling Artist Scholarship Competition in 1893.
  
  At the National Gallery of Victoria, among his teachers was L. Bernard Hall, who would run the gallery and school for the next several decades. Gordon was also influenced by the Heidelberg School, with whom he exhibited. Frederick McCubbin, a principal Heidelberg artist, was a Master Instructor at the NGV and also a teacher of Gordon.
  
  During the 1890s, Gordon earned his living with portrait commissions, including the Prime Minister of Victoria, before being appointed Instructor at the Government Art School in Sydney in 1896 where he taught painting until 1899. In 1902, Gordon set sail for San Francisco, where he married artist Alice Hobbs, who was a painter of miniatures, and of Indian children in the manner of Grace Hudson. They survived the 1906 earthquake and built a house/studio in Piedmont, across the bay.
  
  Gordon was a member of the Bohemian Club in San Francisco and exhibited there regularly, as well as at Gump's and the Schussler Gallery, sometimes with Alice. They both illustrated covers for Sunset magazine, and Gordon also illustrated poems and short stories, while doing Marin County landscapes and portrait commissions. Around 1910, he and Alice started traveling abroad regularly. They maintained a studio in Paris, and visited various art colonies. Gordon was enrolled in the Academie Julian under François Flemeng and Adolphe Dechenaud, and had paintings accepted at the Paris salon, including Preparatifs pour le Bal des Quat'z-Arts. But in 1914, WWI obliged the couple to withdraw to the relative safety of their Piedmont home. But Gordon had left unfinished business on the Continent, as well as various paintings and belongings, and, despite the war, in 1916 he decided to return there. Alice declined to go along, and divorced him in 1917, retaining the Piedmont house. 1918 found Gordon in Pasadena, California, where he met Gertrude Russell, a music teacher. They married and spent the next several years living and painting in Spain, where daughter Jeane was born, and then in Morocco. During this time, annual trips to Britain were made to exhibit Gordon's Orientalist landscapes and portraits at the Royal Academy and other galleries. But living abroad was exhausting, and the family moved to Mexico where they spent a year near and around the capital. Gordon painted the local people, their cathedrals, and their street markets.
  
  Gordon's bronchial troubles required attention, and in late 1925 the family moved to California. Discovering Palm Springs, and its healthful climate, they had a gallery/studio/home built there in the style of a North African villa they named 'Dar Morroc.' For the next several years the family used their new home as a base for painting excursions around California, the American Southwest, and Mexico. They even traveled as far as Australia in 1927 where Gordon had a retrospective exhibition.
  
  For Gordon Coutts, as for many artists, the Great Depression brought about hard times. Though no longer traveling on account of his health, Gordon continued to paint, and daughter Mary was added to the family. But sales had completely disappeared. Exhibitions in Palm Springs, and at the famous Stendahl Galleries in Los Angeles, could spark little interest in his once popular art. Even a long visit by his good friend (the now Sir) John Lavery, for several winter weeks in 1936, could not revive his flagging health and in early 1937 he succumbed to heart failure at 71." (source: artist's website)
  
  Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection
  
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  Condition

  Signed at lower right. Set in custom frame with some chipping to frame. Some small chips to left side and lower area of painting with a few minor losses and craquelure. Areas of staining, age grime, and darkening, but colors still vibrant and imagery still clear. Suspension wire on verso for display.
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