b. 1866 d. 1936
Site Affiliation: Couse-Sharp Historic Site
Couse was born in Saginaw, Michigan. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, National Academy of Design in New York, and Académie Julian in Paris under William Bougereau and Tony Robert Fleury. In 1889, he married Virginia Walker, an American who had come to Paris to study illustration. After a brief sojourn in the US, the Couses moved in 1893 to coastal France, where their son, Kibbey, was born. In 1898 they established a studio in New York, but summers were spent painting away from the city. Couse learned of Taos in 1902 through a conversation with Ernest Blumenschein and soon began sojourns in northern New Mexico. Along with Joseph Henry Sharp, he became became one of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists in 1915 and its first president. A painter of Native Americans in Taos for the rest of his life, he died in 1936 after a distinguished career.
Primary Medium: Painting
Primary Stylistic Term: Realism, American Impressionism, American Western Art
HAHS Affiliations: Founder of Toas Society of Artists with Joseph Henry Sharp.
Fun Fact: Couse was called “Green Mountain” by his Taos Pueblo friends, as an honor relating him to their sacred mountain and in recognition of his rotund body in its ubiquitous green sweater.