ALEXANDER CARRUTHERS GOULD RBA (1870 - 1948)

Alexander Carruthers Gould (1870 – 1948) was an illustrator, landscape and marine painter, well known for his paintings of Porlock and surrounding areas on Exmoor. 

Born in Woodford in Essex, he was the eldest son of renowned caricaturist Sir Francis Carruthers Gould. Alexander studied at the Heatherley’s School of Art and The Westminster School of Art in London. He began his career as an illustrator for newspapers and books, working for many years for the Westminster Gazette.  In 1895 he was exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy with his painting ‘Floods Out’, and exhibited again in 1900 with ‘A Shady Corner on a Dartmoor Farm’. He also exhibited at a number of other galleries, notably the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil, the New English Art Club and the Royal Society of British Artists, where he was a member and a prolific contributor. 

In 1923 he contributed a miniature watercolour painting to Queen Mary’s dollshouse. Designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, it brought together the work of many notable artists and craftsmen of the period.  

He settled in Porlock in a house on Doverhay, and found inspiration in the village and surrounding countryside, creating evocative watercolours and oil paintings that transport you back to the Exmoor of the early 20th century.