Untitled (Alfred Hutty Self Portrait), no date, Pencil, 7 5/8" x 9 3/4", Courtesy of South Carolina State Museum

On Bedon’s Alley, ca. 1920, Pencil on Paper, 12" x 17 1/2", Courtesy of Dr. James G. Simpson. (This drawing presaged Hutty’s first etching–of the same subject–in 1921. -ED)

y 1919, Alfred Heber Hutty (1877-1954) was already an established artist in New York. He came to Charleston, South Carolina to teach at what is now the Gibbes Museum of Art. Hutty’s long love affair with his adopted city began when he was about 42, and he wintered in Charleston for almost the rest of his life. Hutty was born in Grand Haven, Michigan. An early aptitude for art won him a scholarship to art school at age fifteen. For a time, he was a stained-glass window designer at, among others, Tiffany Glass Studios in New York. A student of Birge Harrison, he, along with George Bellows and others began Woodstock’s Summer Art Colony where Hutty always kept a summer home. Highly skilled as a painter, designer, and especially as a draftsman, Hutty’s Charleston move in mid-life would begin the most varied and productive years of his exceptional career. It was here that he learned etching (for which he won many distinctions, medals, and honors in the U.S., England, and France), established a print studio, and participated with eight other artists in forming the historic Charleston Etchers Club. Hutty executed many etchings, drypoints, pencil drawings, watercolors, pastels, and oil paintings of Charleston, its people, and environs. Most important, he would help lead the Charleston Renaissance of writers, playwrights, poets, and artists. Alfred Hutty’s national reputation provided a window to a larger art world in America for Charleston’s Renaissance Artists, in particular for Anna H. Taylor, Elizabeth O’Neill Verner, and Alice R. Smith. Hutty and his wife Bessie were among the earlier pioneers in historic

C h a r l e s to n ’ s a d o p t e d R e n a i ssa n c e Ma n A rare sampling of his var ied and master f ul ar tistr y

Charleston preservation, restoring 46 Tradd Street and its carriage house as an elegant home and studio. He was involved, too, in the Footlight Players; assisting in restoring its Workshop/Playhouse on Queen Street, painting the mural in its lobby, acting in plays, and providing leadership.

Art and Commentary Organized and Selected by Leonard L . Long, Jr. with Carlye Jane Doughert y

In Old Charleston, 1928, Etching, 8" x 9", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

(Hutty adopted the snail to follow his signature as he was late in life coming to etching which would become his most well-regarded medium. -ED)

“Hutty’s portraits of human types are no less remarkable than his portraits of trees. My favorite is the old blind Mauma, as gnarled as an ancient tree, living over in thought a long life of varied experience. The beauty of character which the artist has revealed in a corresponding beauty of living and unflinching line (of his etching needle) makes this a great portrait in the tradition of Rembrandt’s immortal old women.” Duncan Phillips A m e r ic a n E t c h e r s , Vo l . II (1929)

An Old Mauma, 1926, Etching, 8 1/2" x 7 1/8", Courtesy of Dr. James G. Simpson

St. Phillip’s Church, ca. 1930, Oil, 32 3/8" x 32 3/4", Gift of Mrs. Ashby Farrow to Gibbes Museum of Art

In a Southern City, 1929, Watercolor, 16" x 211/2", Courtesy Dr. James G. Simpson

Untitled (Church Street, Charleston), no date, Watercolor, 20" x 25", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

“His intention (is) of making an aesthetic as well as a historical record. Hutty captures the essence of Charleston as it exists in the mind of the artist. He salvages what he can of the picturesque antiquity which is passing away and gives permanence to that mood which the Northern visitor feels so poignantly in the Southern city.” Duncan Phillips A m e r ic a n E t c h e r s , Vo l . II (1929)

Untitled (Crap Game 2), no date, Drypoint, 8" x 9 3/8", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

Gossips, 1930, Watercolor, 9" x 12",

Courtesy of The Wright Southern Collection

At One Hundred Nine (Tradd Street), 1923, Etching, 6" x 6 1/2 ", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

At Low Tide (aka On the Way House),

1949, Etching, 4 1/2" x 3 3/16", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

Back Street Washday, ca. 1950, Oil, 30" x 24", Courtesy of The Wright Southern Collection Spirituals in the Lowcountry, ca. 1930, Mixed Media, 5" x 6", Courtesy of The Wright Southern Collection

High Tide, no date, Pastel, 16" x 12",

Courtesy of The Wright Southern Collection

“When I turn the corner at Tradd and Church, I still expect to see that tall, distinguished figure in the grey felt hat and tweed jacket. I remember the way his eyes would light up, the sudden smile, the warmth of those strong sensitive hands reaching out to grasp mine.” The Border Gate at 14 Legare Street, 1926,

Etching, 8 / " x 5 / ", Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard L. Long, Jr. 3 8

Catfish Row, ca.1935, Oil, 9" x 11", Courtesy of The Wright Southern Collection

1 2

Patricia Robinson Charleston Actress & Playwright Two Oaks, Charleston, ca.1936, Pencil, 00" x 00", Courtesy of Dr. & Mrs. Bert Pruitt

Sunlight and Shadow, ca. 1940, Watercolor, 16" x 211/2", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

Sweeping the Leaves at Magnolia Garden, no date, Watercolor, 16 1/2" x 9 1/2", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

The Jenkins Orphanage Band, founded in the 1890s by the Rev. Daniel Jenkins, raised funds for an orphanage after he found four homeless young black orphans shivering in a rail yard. They played on Charleston streets and throughout the United States and Europe, to much acclaim starring in the New York opening of Porgy in 1926. The vitality of this group is captured in the Jenkins Orphanage Band pencil drawing. Adapted from A l f r e d H u t t y a n d t h e C h a r l e s t o n R e n a i s s a n c e by Saunders and McAden (1990)

Jenkins Orphanage Band, ca. 1931; Pencil on Paper, 10 3/8" X 9 9/16", Courtesy of Dr. and Mrs. Bert Pruitt

Untitled (Under St. Michael’s Portico), no date, Etching, 12" x 8", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

St. Andrews Episcopal Church, no date, Watercolor, 15" x 19 5/8", Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. A. Dano Davis and The Charleston Renaissance Gallery

Sea Island Tree, no date, Pencil, 11 3/4" x 16 3/4", Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard L. Long, Jr.

Enterprise, ca. 1944, Drypoint, 7 3/4" x 5 3/4", Gift of Mrs. Alfred Hutty to Gibbes Museum of Art

In Magnolia Gardens, no date, Oil, 25" x 30", Courtesy of Carolina Galleries

In a Southern City, no date, Oil, 36" x 32", Courtesy of Carolina Galleries

“His paintings and sketches of Charleston and the Lowcountry and the people in the area speak in an international tongue that communicates by feeling rather than by words. They say in quite plain terms that here was an artist in complete rapport with his subjects. And, so he was.” Former Charleston N e ws

and

C o u r i e r Editor, Jack Leland

Backstage, 1940, Drypoint, 12" x 9", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

Pirate Houses, Charleston, 1932, Drypoint, 7 3/8" x 9", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

“He {Hutty} has set down, with warmth and unerring accuracy, a poetic record of the Charleston of his time...he was that rare creature, an aristocrat of the mind and heart, an artist of taste and humor and compassion.” Emmett Robinson in F o o t n o t e s , the newsletter of The Footlight Players. ca. 1954

The Footlight Players Workshop, ca.1936, Watercolor, 18" x 22", Courtesy of Mr. & Mrs. Leonard L. Long, Jr.

Selma Tharin, 1923, Pencil, 10" x 13", Courtesy of Dr. James G. Simpson

(Selma Tharin Furtwangler Doterrer was a great friend of Hutty’s, the subject of many drawings and an active community figure in Charleston well into her nineties. -ED)

Untitled (Carolina Cabin), ca. 1940, Oil, 32 1/4" x 40 1/4", Courtesy of Howle-Throckmorton Collection

Pink House, Chalmers Street, no date, Watercolor, 16" x 22", Courtesy of The Wright Southern Collection

Close of Day, no date, Watercolor, 18" x 24", Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Brumley

“To write about Alfred Hutty with complete appreciation of his knowledge and skill one should be an etcher, a portrait painter, a authority on architecture, and a connoisseur of trees. I fail to qualify in any of these requirements. And yet I can pay my tribute as one of the many who recognize mastery.” Duncan Phillips A m e r ic a n E t c h e r s , Vo l . II (1929)

Becky Smoking, 1951, Drypoint, 3 5/8" x 4 5/8", Gift of Alfred Hutty to Gibbes Museum of Art

54 Meeting Street, 1926, Oil, 15 1/2" x 113/8", Courtesy of Dr. and Mrs. Bert Pruitt

Flower Vendors at Charleston Market, 1948, Drypoint, 8" x 10 3/8", Gift of Mrs. Alfred Hutty to Gibbes Museum of Art

“Although I loved the old town greatly, the magnificence of the Magnolia and the Middleton Gardens completely enthralled me, so that for several years, during my three or four months visits I painted mostly the gardens.” Alfred Hutty

Wash Day, Charleston, no date, Watercolor, 17" x 23 3/8", Courtesy of Charleston Renaissance Gallery

In 1919, Hutty was on the way to Florida and wired wife Bess that he had “found heaven” in Charleston. The exquisite irony is that Hutty discovered, painted, etched, drew, pasteled, and bequeathed his special pieces of heaven to us all. Fifty-seven years after he left his adopted city, we cherish his many gifts all the more. - ED.

The Gibbes Museum of Art is organizing a major traveling exhibition for 2012 with an accompanying catalog on Alfred Heber Hutty. The project will shed new light on the artist’s career, his influence on

Toward A New Day, ca. 1942, Drypoint, 9" x 12", Courtesy of Howle-

Cypress Swamp, no date, Oil, 23 / " x 20", Courtesy of Carolina Galleries 34

Throckmorton Collection (This was said by Hutty’s son to have been his father’s favorite etching of the Lowcountry, perhaps for its seeming narrative. -ED)

American art, and his significance as a major artist of the Charleston Renaissance period. The catalog will include several scholarly essays as well as a catalog raisonné of Hutty’s prints. -ED.