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  • Eanger Irving Couse
    Sep 03, 1866 - Apr 26, 1936
  • The Sculptor - Eanger Irving Couse was One of the more accomplished figure painters of the original Taos Society of Artists, His lifelong pursuit of painting Native Americans was kindled by the beauty and tranquility of the local Chippewa and Ojibwa cultures. The training he received in Europe, particularly under Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury, influenced the measured studio style he practiced for the rest of his life.
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The Sculptor
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  • The Sculptor

  • Eanger Irving Couse
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  • 1914
    Oil on canvas
    Private collection, Williamson, Georgia, by descent.

    Eanger Irving Couse was born and raised in the logging town of Saginaw, Michigan, where he drew the Chippewa Indians who lived nearby. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Academy of Design in New York. At the age of twenty, he traveled to France, where he studied at the Académie Julien under William Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury. Couse remained in France for nearly a decade and specialized in painting landscapes and peasant subjects. In 1889, he married fellow art student Virginia Walker, a rancher's daughter from Washington, and in 1891 they settled for a year at the Walker family's ranch in Klickitat County, where Couse produced his first oil paintings of Native Americans.

    In 1902, after decades of training in illustrious institutions, Couse heard about Taos through his friend and fellow artist Ernest Blumenschein, who described the incomparable light and fresh subjects that the town's environs had to offer. Enticed, Couse and his wife began spending their summers in Taos, all too happy to leave behind the rat race of New York. In 1910, they refurbished a Spanish monastery into a home and studio. The Taos Society of Artists was formed five years later, and Couse was elected its first president. His paintings from this period readily adopted a brighter palette and indigenous subjects, particularly the Pueblo Indians, whose gentle demeanor and artistic practices reminded him of the Chippewa Indians he had drawn as a boy in Michigan.

    Rendered a year prior to the official establishment of the Taos Society of Artists, The Sculptor, 1914 embodies some of the finest qualities of the artist's oeuvre: The romantic subject of the kneeling contemplative lone Indian lost in a seemingly meditative state as he works on the task at hand. Several images of animals appear on the wall, and he is shown meticulously chiseling a new pictograph of a figure into the surface. In describing this subject, Couse wrote, "The Rocky Mountain region abounds in pictographs cut into the rocks by the ancient Indians representing figures of men and animals and symbols of natural phenomenon. Having no written language, the Indians depicted their deeds and legends by pictorial representation on skin or the rocks...."

    In April 1915, Couse had a solo exhibition of fourteen paintings at the Braus Galleries in New York, which included the paintings The Sculptor, The Medicine Water, The Pueblo Housetop, and Prayer to the Water God. He decorated the gallery with pottery, moccasins, and other Native American items from his collection to entice patrons. Couse's popularity in Taos continued to grow well after his family permanently settled there in 1927, primarily due to the patronage of the American Lithographic Company, Santa Fe Railroad, and Beacon Manufacturing Company.

    The Sculptor, 1914 epitomizes the subject matter and the technical skill of this National Academy graduate that became known as one of the greatest painters of the American West.

    We wish to thank Virginia Leavitt, granddaughter of E.I. Couse, for providing invaluable information on this lot, which will be included in her forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work. The artist referred to this painting both as The Sculptor and as Indian Sculptor.

    Why settle for a paper print when you can add sophistication to your rooms with a high quality 100% hand-painted oil painting on canvas at wholesale price? Order this beautiful oil painting today! that's a great way to impress friends, neighbors and clients alike.

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Other paintings by Eanger Irving Couse:

The Rockbound Pool
The Rockbound Pool
The Sacred Rain Bowl
The Sacred Rain Bowl
The Sculptor 2
The Sculptor 2
The Sentinel
The Sentinel
Eanger Irving CouseEanger Irving Couse was born in Saginaw, Michigan. His lifelong pursuit of painting Native Americans was kindled by the beauty and tranquility of the local Chippewa and Ojibwa cultures. Couse chose a career in art at an early age, studying at the Chicago Art Institute, the National Academy of Design in New York, and, as was the dream of many young artists of the time, at the Académie Julian in Paris. The training he received in Europe, particularly under Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury, influenced the measured studio style he practiced for the rest of his life.

In Paris, Couse married a fellow artist whose family ranch in Washington State provided him with access to a number of Indian tribes. Lyrical portraits of the Klikitat, Yakima, and Umatilla, painted in the Barbizon style, were his first attempts at this truly American subject. His historical narratives of the West brought him great acclaim at the Paris Salon exhibitions.

Finding French peasant scenes and European landscapes more saleable, Couse returned to a successful career in France. However, upon the advice of fellow artists, Joseph Henry Sharp and Ernest Blumenschein, Couse made his first visit to Taos in 1902. Though Couse maintained a studio in Manhattan during the winter months until 1928, Taos was his inspiration and became his permanent home.

Couse was elected to full membership in the National Academy of Design in 1911. His paintings are represented in numerous museums and private collections including the Detroit Institute of Art, the Metropolitan Museum and the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. Through the many paintings created for the railroad, his painting received national exposure and brought recognition to Taos. Couse created images that were highly influential in changing the public's perception of the West and many are regarded as poetic renderings of a vanished time.