Jae Turner

Currently featured on Artworks of Mary E. Hutchinson at http://meh.omeka.net – “Cathedral St. John the Divine,” etching (ca.1929).

As a student at the National Academy of Design in New York, Mary E. Hutchinson learned to work in a variety of media including the art of etching which was very popular in the 1920s.  She viewed the Cathedral of St. John the Divine from her apartment window every day and made both an etching and a drawing of it.

Hutchinson began etching in January 1929 and wrote her mother, Minnie Belle, a detailed description of the process:

“I can stay in the etching class all right I think, but I have such loads to learn!  Mr. Leavy came in yesterday morning.  So Friday afternoon I worked, lay[ing] another ground on a plate, and printing the trial plate I had made.  Part of Thursday I worked in the room, biting my trial plate.  I certainly make lot of slips, with no one to tell me much.

You first take a zinc plate, clean it with the finest emory paper and then benzene.  You put the plate on a stone, holding it with a vice.  When it is almost hot enough to sizzle (but it must not sizzle), you rub rosin on it through a silk rag; then with a rubber roller, you roll the wax very evenly, and very thin on the plate.  The heat of the plate must be just right to do this, and your pressure just right, and even the most experienced often have to lay a ground three or four times before it is right.  The coating has to be very thin, yet perfectly cover the plate.  Any part too thin, or a tiny porous place like a pin mark, the acid will bite through.  When the ground is on right, and the plate still warm, it is smoked then cooled.  That is all I had better explain at present.”

Mary E. Hutchinson’s 1933 portrait of Rosalie Lanza sold at auction last week.  This is one of several portraits of Rosalie painted by Hutchinson between 1932-1935.  The subject was the sister of Hutchinson’s partner, Joanna Lanza.  For the exhibition history and more about the artist, see my digital catalog Artworks of Mary E. Hutchinson at http://meh.omeka.net.

Needless to say, I would love to hear from the new owner of “Rosalie”!  Leave a comment and let’s connect.

I have just added several pen and ink drawings to my digital archiving site The Artworks of Mary E. Hutchinson at http://meh.omeka.net.

Hutchinson made these drawings between 1942 and 1945 depicting her topsy turvy daily life as she and Ruth Layton cared for the children of a close friend who appears to have been suffering from severe depression and may have been institutionalized.  To view all of these drawings posted so far, click here and then select “Browse Items” from the top menu.  Then click “Browse By Tag,” and finally select “pen & ink” from the tag cloud.

Tell me about your experience navigating my Hutchinson site by leaving a reply here.

I’ve just learned that Mary E. Hutchinson’s ca. 1934-35 painting “Cat” was recently sold at auction.  Hutchinson exhibited the painting at the Washington Square Sidewalk Show probably in 1934 and then again at the Argent Galleries in New York in 1935.  The Argent Galleries was associated with the National Association of Women Artists.

“Cat” is currently featured on my digital archiving site, Artworks of Mary E. Hutchinson at http://meh.omeka.net.

I have recently added this portrait of George Griffiths to the Artworks of Mary E. Hutchinson at http://meh.omeka.net.   It is one in a series of paintings made by Hutchinson in 1936-37 of Griffiths who she probably encountered at the Harlem Community Art Center where she worked for the Federal Art Project.  The title of this work is probably either “George” of “Shine Boy” or it seems likely that Hutchinson exhibited the painting twice under the two different titles.

I am currently researching and thinking through issues of mid-twentieth century cross racial representation and would love to hear from others working on this issue.