THE MOROCCAN VILLA
Built in 1924, The Moroccan villa, originally named Dar Marroc, was the former hideaway of Scottish painter Gordon Coutts. The villa served as the venue for Coutts to re-create his earlier life in Tangier by employing a wide variety of architectural features that promoted a Moroccan decor.
A visionary with a dream to re-live his art-filled Moroccan days, the flamboyant Coutts did not stop with the recapturing of his physical existence in Tangier with Dar Marroc, but his social existence as well. Coutts hung his paintings in the library, where he regaled his guests with tales of adventure. Dar Marroc quickly became a gathering place for musicians, visiting artists such as John Lavery, Agnes Pelton, Nicolai Fenshin and Grant Wood and celebrities such as Rudolph Valentino and Errol Flynn. It is rumored that even Winston Churchill has painted in the villa’s Artist Studio.
