Biography of Eanger Irving Couse

(1866 - 1936)

Biography

Eanger Irving Couse (1866–1936) was an American artist and a founding member and first president of the Taos Society of Artists. He is noted for paintings of Native Americans, New Mexico, and the American Southwest. His house and studio in Taos have been preserved as the Couse/Sharp Historic Site, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties.

Early life and education

Couse (pronounced to rhyme with "house"[1]) was born to a farming family in Saginaw, Michigan. As a boy, he started drawing members of the Chippewa tribe who lived nearby. He attended local schools as a child and continued to work at art.

Couse left Michigan for professional art studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Academy of Design, New York. He went to Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and Académie Julian under William-Adolphe Bouguereau. He lived in France for 10 years, painting mostly landscapes of the Normandy coast.

Artistic career

After his return to the United States, Couse first lived in New York. He spent time in Taos, New Mexico during the summers. The area was beginning to attract numerous artists and writers. There he studied and painted the lives and culture of the Taos Indians, a Pueblo tribe. He began to show his paintings of Native American life and earned his first solo show in 1891.

In 1911 Couse was elected to the National Academy of Design.[2] He also became active in the Taos art colony. In 1915, Couse was one of the six founding members of the Taos Society of Artists, and was elected first president. Another founding member was the artist J. H. Sharp, who adapted a chapel near Couse's house as a studio. Later Sharp built a combined house and studio on the land. The adjacent properties are recognized jointly as the Couse/Sharp Historic Site, and are preserved and operated by the Couse Foundation.

Among Couse's works in public galleries are Elkfoot (National Gallery, Washington); The Forest Camp (Brooklyn Museum of Art); The Tom-Tom Maker (Lotos Club, New York); Medicine Fires (Montclair Gallery, New Jersey); and Shapanagons, a Chippewa Chief (Detroit Museum of Art).[3]

Early works

Couse's The Captive was shown in 1891 at his first solo exhibition, held at the Portland Art Association in Oregon, and then at the Paris Salon of 1892. This large, "salon size" painting was the first Native American subject by Couse, who later achieved fame in the United States for his paintings of the indigenous peoples of New Mexico. In 1991, The Captive was included in the National Museum of American Art exhibition entitled The West as America, which created controversy by its curatorial interpretation of the artists' meanings and intents. Art historians have explored the painting's racial, sexual, and social motives in the context of American society at the time.[4]

In 1899, Couse exhibited three paintings at the Boston Art Club: A Cayuse Indian (oil), Maternity (oil), and Yakima Encampment (oil). At the time, Course listed his current address as the Van Dyck Studios, 939 8th Avenue, New York City.

Later works

· Mending the War Bonnet

· Making Pottery (awarded the Carnegie Prize)

· Rushing Water (1912)

· Twilight, Taos Pueblo (1913)

· The Kachina Painter (1917)

Legacy and honors

His works won recognition and numerous awards from such institutions as the following: the Paris Salon, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Academy of Design (Altman prize, 1916); and the Salmagundi Club (Isidor prize, 1917). He was awarded the Lippincott prize from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1921). He received awards from the American Exposition, Buffalo; the Boston Art Club, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco (silver medal, 1915). His works are held in many museums in the United States and around the world.

Two buildings he used as studios are part of the Eanger Irving Couse House and Studio—Joseph Henry Sharp Studios listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties.[5] This is one of 30 sites recognized as an "Historic Artist's Home and Studio Associate Site" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.[5] In 2001 the Couse Foundation was formed to restore and preserve the properties. It operates the historic site of the two artists and offers scheduled tours.