Florence County Museum

Join us Sat 6/13 from 1 - 3pm for Family Day - Silhouettes & Shadows! Learn about light and shadow, capture your own silhouette on paper, & check out some new exhibits!

There’s a great article about artist Alfred Hutty in this month’s Charleston Magazine. The article features the Hutty painting titled, Back Street (Wash Day) from the FCM’s Wright Collection of Southern Art. Visitors will be able to see the painting on display starting June 11th in Southern Visions, an exhibit which explores regional identity through art created during the early 1900s. Southern Visions is one of two art exhibits opening next month at the FCM.

Alfred Hutty was born in Grand Haven, Michigan; studied at St. Louis School of Fine Arts; moved to Woodstock, NY in 1907. While in Woodstock, Hutty studied under Birge Harrison, at the Art Students League, and he worked as a stained glass designer for Tiffany Studios. Primarily an oil and watercolor artist, Hutty did not seriously take up etching until he took residence in Charleston in 1919. He quickly absorbed the energy and atmosphere of the city, which inspired much of the art he later became famous for. Shortly after his arrival in Charleston, Hutty served as the first director of the School of the Carolina Art Association. In 1923, a mixed group of nine local artists, which included Hutty, founded the Charleston Etchers Club. It was Hutty who helped the club acquire their own etching press, which they set up at the Charleston Museum. Having the personal endorsement of an artist of Hutty’s pedigree helped bring legitimacy to Charleston as a bona fide destination capable of sustaining a community worthy of the accomplished artist.