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EANGER IRVING COUSE 

E.I. Couse was born in Saginaw, Michigan, where he first started drawing the Chippewa Indians who lived nearby.  Couse worked hard to pay for his art education, occasionally dropping out to earn money while attending the Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Academy of Design.  In 1886 Eanger Irving Couse left for Paris to study at the Academie Julian, where he met the American artist, Joseph Henry Sharp, who often spoke of Taos.  Couse met his future wife, Virginia Walker, an illustration student in Paris, in 1887, and they were married in 1889. Moving back to the United States, the couple settled in Washington State at Virginia’s family ranch. Couse was interested in attempting to create a painting with Native American indians as the subject matter, eventually producing a historical work titled “The Captive” based on an incident known as the “Whitman Massacre”. This painting was shown at the Paris Salon in in 1892 and is now part of the permanent collection at the Phoenix Art Museum. In 1893 Couse and his wife moved back to France, where they remained in a small coastal town in Picardy for three years as he continued to paint in the small art colony. Their son Kibbey was born there prior to the family’s return to the United States.

Couse would become a frequent visitor and resident of Taos from 1902 on, when he heard about the town from his friend Ernest Blumenschein. He focused primarily on paintings of the Indigenous people who lived in the surrounding area.  In 1912 when the historically important Taos Society of Artists was formed, Couse was elected its first President.  The original founding members of the group, known collectively as the “Taos Six” included Couse, Joseph Henry Sharp, Oscar Berninghaus, Bert Geer Phillips, W. Herbert Dunton, and Ernest Blumenschein. Later members included E. Martin Hennings and Walter Ufer.

E. Irving Couse is best known for his intimate images of Native Americans in moments of spiritual ceremony and quiet repose.  

For additional information, visit:
Wikipedia
The Couse-Sharp Historic Site

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