Gordon Harrower Coutts[2] (3 October 1868 – 21 February 1937) was a Scottish artist internationally known for his desert landscapes, Moroccan figures, portraits, and nudes.

[4] Coutts moved to the United States in late 1902, first to Omaha, Nebraska,[6][7] and then to San Francisco, where he became a member of the Bohemian Club.

[11][12] The two of them spent time in Spain and Morocco, regularly making trips to back to the United Kingdom, where he exhibited at various galleries.

[4] By 1920, they had returned to the US, settling in Pasadena, California,[13] and in 1924 they moved to Palm Springs, hoping the drier desert air would be better for his tuberculosis.

Dar Maroc played host to numerous celebrities over the years, including John Lavery, Winston Churchill, and Grant Wood.

[7][16] However, Coutts stopped making payments in October 1901, and when he decided to leave Australia in 1902, he attempted to evade the court order by purchasing a ticket under a false name.

He was arrested in Wellington, New Zealand, for violating a recent law making it an offence for someone to avoid a maintenance order by leaving the state.