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Eanger Irving Couse
(1866-1936)
Born in 1866, Eanger Irving Couse grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. There, he lived near the Chippewa Indians and as a youngster did sketches of these native people. He studied for three months at the Art Institute of Chicago, having earned just enough money by painting houses. He then returned to Saginaw to earn more money so he could go to New York City which he did in 1885. He enrolled in the National Academy of Design for two years and did many odd jobs to support himself.
In 1887, he went to Paris to the Academie Julian where his great influence became the superb draftsmanship and classical techniques of William Adolphe Bouguereau. Couse returned to Paris many times, and on one of these trips met his future wife, Virginia Walker, an art student whose family had a ranch in Oregon. It was there that he painted the Yakima, Umatilla, and Klikitat Indians in the pastel colors of the French Barbizon School. However, there was little interest in Indian subject matter for fine art in America. He also painted pastoral scenes, which were more popular at the time.
Couse went back to France and painted bucolic genre scenes. Although he had stylistic influences from Europe, he became more and more determined to create an art that was uniquely American and was increasingly fascinated with Indians as subject matter.
In 1902, Couse visited Taos, New Mexico for the first time, having heard about it from his friend, Joseph Henry Sharp. Couse had difficulty finding Pueblo Indians to pose because of their belief that the soul of the sitter passes into the picture once it is completed. Couse was elected the first president of the Taos Society of Artists in 1912, and in 1927, he and his family moved there permanently. His wife died two years later, much affecting his spirit and the vitality of his paintings.
Although he posed models for sketching outdoors, he continued to paint in his comfortable studio in a French academic manner. He also painted occasionally in Arizona, going first in 1903, to the Hopi ceremonies at Walpi. His models for most of his New Mexico Indian figure painting were Ben Lujan and Geronimo Gomez, Taos Pueblo residents. The tone is poetic and peaceful and reflects a civilization that is at peace with itself. Usually the squatting Indian figures were engaged in domestic activity such as preparing food.
In 1914, his paintings began being used on calendars by the Santa Fe Railway and became the basis for the company's comprehensive Southwest art collection. The first calendar painting was "Wal-si-el, Good Medicine", which initiated the tradition of using Taos painters on the calendars.
Couse died in 1936.
Studied: Art Institute of Chicago, 1884; National Academy of Design; Academie Julian, Paris with Robert-Fleury, Bouguereau, 1887-90; Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
Member: Associate Member of National Academy of Design, 1902; National Academy of Design, 1911; Lotos Dl.; National Arts Club; Taos Society of Artists; SPNY; Sll. Art Association; American Federation of Arts.
Exhibited: Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Milwaukee Art Center, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Philbrook Art Center, the Gilcrease Institute of Art, and the Museum of New Mexico, among numerous other collections both public and private.
Sources:
Zellman, Michael D. "300 Years of American Art". Print.
Samuels,Peggy and Harold. "Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West". Print.
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