Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue
Sir Coutts Lindsay, 2nd Bt (1824-1913), Artist; Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
Painter, patron and proprietor of the Grosvenor Gallery; born 2 February 1824 into a military family. Inherited baronetcy via his mother 1837; military career 1842–55; studied with Ary Scheffer and landscapist William Leighton Leitch and in Italy; exhibited at RA 1862–75 and also at Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour and Grosvenor G.; created frescoes for Dorchester House, London 1875;[1] with first wife Caroline Blanche built and launched Grosvenor G. 1877 as a showcase for contemporary and especially Aesthetic art; trustee of NPG 1866–1913; elected RIPWC 1879; following separation from wife lived quietly from 1890 with Kate Madley (née Burfield) whom he married 1912; died 7 May 1913, at Kingston-upon-Thames.
As a youth, Lindsay travelled in Italy with his cousin Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, later 25th Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, author of the influential Sketches in the History of Christian Art (1847). Later, through the Grosvenor G., his associates included James MacNeill Whistler, Edward Burne-Jones and George Frederic Watts.
He is described as ‘a talented painter and loving son, fatally attractive to women and a faithless husband’[2] and as ‘too versatile, too fond of experiment … too impatient to ever get beyond the ambit of the dilettante and amateur’.[3]
Dr Jan Marsh
As a youth, Lindsay travelled in Italy with his cousin Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, later 25th Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, author of the influential Sketches in the History of Christian Art (1847). Later, through the Grosvenor G., his associates included James MacNeill Whistler, Edward Burne-Jones and George Frederic Watts.
He is described as ‘a talented painter and loving son, fatally attractive to women and a faithless husband’[2] and as ‘too versatile, too fond of experiment … too impatient to ever get beyond the ambit of the dilettante and amateur’.[3]
Dr Jan Marsh
Footnotesback to top
1) Owned by his brother-in-law Robert Holford, and since demolished.
2) Surtees 1993, p.9.
3) Unidentified relative, quoted Surtees 1993, p.188.
Referencesback to top
Casteras & Denney 1996Casteras, S., and C. Denney, eds, The Grosvenor Gallery: A Palace of Art in Victorian England, exh. cat., New Haven and London, 1996.
Cox & Ford 2003
Cox, J., and C. Ford, Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs, London, 2003.
Davids 2000
Davids, R., The Artist as Portrait, exh. cat., Fine Art Society, London, 2000.
Denker 1995
Denker, E., In Pursuit of the Butterfly: Portraits of James McNeill Whistler, exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, 1995.
Denney 2000
Denney, C., At the Temple of Art: The Grosvenor Gallery 1877–1890, Madison, NJ, 2000.
Ford & Porter 1979
Ford, C., and A. Porter, People in Camera 1839–1914, exh. cat., NPG, London, 1979.
Gallatin 1918
Gallatin, A.E., Portraits of Whistler: A Critical Study and an Iconography, London and New York, 1918.
Hallé 1909
Hallé, C.E., Notes from a Painter’s Life, London, 1909.
Jopling 1925
Jopling, L., Twenty Years of My Life, 1867 to 1887, London, 1925.
MacCarthy 2011
MacCarthy, F., The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination, London, 2011.
McMaster 2008
McMaster, J., ‘That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch and the Royal Academy’, British Art Journal, Autumn 2008, pp.62–76.
McMaster 2009
McMaster, J., That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch and the Royal Academy, Edmonton, Canada, 2009.
Newall 1995
Newall, C., The Grosvenor Gallery Exhibitions: Change and Continuity in the Victorian Art World, Cambridge, 1995.
Olsen 2003
Olsen, V., From Life: Julia Margaret Cameron and Victorian Photography, New York, 2003.
Rideal 1991
Rideal, L., Double Take, exh. cat., NPG, London, 1991.
Surtees 1993
Surtees, V., Coutts Lindsay 1824–1913, Wilby, Norfolk, 1993.
Weaver 1986
Weaver, M., The Whisper of the Muse: The Overstone Album and other photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron, exh. cat., Getty Museum, Malibu, 1986.