Sir Coutts Lindsay, 2nd Baronet (2 February 1824 – 7 May 1913

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...

), was a British artist and

watercolourist Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

Life

Lindsay was the eldest son of

Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...

Sir James Lindsay, son of the Hon. Robert Lindsay, second son of James Lindsay, 5th Earl of Balcarres. His mother was Anne, daughter of Sir Coutts Trotter, 1st Baronet, a principal partner in Coutt's Bank.

Robert Loyd-Lindsay, 1st Baron Wantage Brigadier General Robert James Loyd-Lindsay, 1st Baron Wantage, (17 April 1832 – 10 June 1901) was a British soldier, politician, philanthropist, benefactor to Wantage, and first chairman and co-founder of the British National Society for Aid ...

, was his younger brother. In 1839 he succeeded by special remainder to his maternal grandfather's baronetcy. He then entered the army, commanding the 1st Regiment of the Italian Legion during the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

before retiring from military life to devote himself to art. In the 1871

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, he describes himself as ''artist and dilettante''. From 1862 to 1874 he exhibited many pictures, including various successful portraits. In 1879 he and his first wife, Lady Lindsay (of Balcarres), were both elected to membership of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours. His studio at 4-5 Cromwell Place was also used by Archibald Stuart-Wortley. He and his first wife founded the

Grosvenor Gallery The Grosvenor Gallery was an art gallery in London founded in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay and his wife Blanche. Its first directors were J. Comyns Carr and Charles Hallé. The gallery proved crucial to the Aesthetic Movement because it provid ...

in 1877 as an alternative to the Royal Academy. It was devoted to exhibiting works by the

Pre-Raphaelites The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti ...

(then held to be too stylistically advanced for the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

) and becoming the focus of the

Aesthetic Movement Aestheticism (also known as the aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century that valued the appearance of literature, music, fonts and the arts over their functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be produced to b ...

from then until its closure in 1890. Its inaugural exhibition on 1 May 1877 included

James Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...

's '' Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket'', leading to the famous libel trial between Whistler and

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

. Coutts was important to the careers of Coutts' friends Whistler and

George Frederic Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817 – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolism (arts), Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as ''Hope (Watts), Hop ...

in providing a sympathetic venue for the display of their work. However, the gallery declined after Lindsay separated from his first wife, and it closed in 1890. In the 30 years before her death she then lived in London and

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, gathering a circle of friends including Alma Tadema, GF Watts and

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentar ...

and collecting a number of fine paintings (some of which she left to the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

). She also published several volumes of poetry, includin
''From a Venetian Balcony''
(1903) an
''Poems of Love and Death''
(1907).

Marriages

He first married in 1864 to the distinguished artist, novelist and poet Caroline Blanche Elizabeth Fitzroy (born 1844, died 10 August 1912, London), daughter of the Rt. Hon. Henry Fitzroy by his wife Hannah Mayer de Rothschild (daughter of

Nathan Meyer Rothschild Nathan Mayer Rothschild (16 September 1777 – 28 July 1836), also known as Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild, was a British-German banker, businessman and financier. Born in Frankfurt am Main, he was the third of the five sons of Mayer Amschel Ro ...

). Her portrait by Joseph Middleton Jopling is at the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

. His daughter Harriet Euphemia Susan Lindsay married Thomas Selby Henrey, who was father of Robert Selby Henry, who was father of Bobby Henrey. Lindsay's first marriage broke down after his founding of the Grosvenor Gallery, with Lady Lindsay taking control of it. They lived separately until her death in 1912; Lindsay's second marriage, in 1912, was to Kate Harriet Burfield (d. 1937). He is buried at

St Andrew's Church, Ham St Andrew's Church, Ham, is a Grade II listed Church of England church on Church Road, Ham Common in Ham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Architecture The church was built in grey brick in 1830–31; the architect was Edward Lap ...

Works

Plays

*''Alfred'' *''Edward the Black Prince''
''Boadicea: A Tragedy''
1857

Bibliography

*Walkley, Giles, ''Artists' houses in London 1764–1914'', Aldershot, 1994 Casteras, Susan P., Colleen Denney, ''The Grosvenor Gallery: a Palace of Art in Victorian England'', New Haven, 1996 The Annual Register 1913, p. 95 *''Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford, on-line edition (accessed 2004).

External links

Portraits of him

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

*https://web.archive.org/web/20040623035853/http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/biog/Lind_C.htm
John Hannavay, ''Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Photography''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsay, Coutts 1824 births 1913 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters English watercolourists Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom

Coutts Coutts & Co. () is a British private bank and wealth manager headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1692, it is the eighth oldest bank in the world. Today, Coutts forms part of NatWest Group's wealth management division. In the Channe ...

19th-century English male artists Members of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Grenadier Guards officers 20th-century English male artists Burials at St Andrew's Church, Ham