Education
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
Later he taught at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1900, where he expressed his disdain for the researches of Rodin— fumiste— and the Impressionist sculptors who followed him. He was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1905. Coutan is best known in the United States for the sculptural group above the entrance to Grand Central Terminal in New York City.
Foreign Grand Central Terminal, Coutan was contracted to provide a quarter-size scale plaster model of the three-figure allegorical Transportation group, which he developed from 1911 through 1914.
(Coutan never visited the United States) The carving was performed by the William Bradley & Son of Long Island City. The small bronzes, some stamped by the founders Thiebaut Frères, that represented a constant source of income for Coutan and a genre typical of his output, appear with some frequency on the art market.
Among Coutan"s students were Hippolyte Lefèbvre, Raymond Delamarre, and the Argentine sculptor Rogelio Yrurtia.
Académie des Beaux-Arts.