MYSTERY:  Tell us more about this artwork

This looks pretty interesting, but what is it and who made it?  Send your guess to:  editor@charlestoncurrents.com.  And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.

Our previous Mystery Photo

Our Nov. 26 mystery, “Who painted this?” may have looked like a watercolor by Alice Huger Smith to some, but actually was part of a 1920 oil painting of Magnolia Gardens by Charleston Renaissance artist Alfred Hutty.  You can learn more about Hutty in the new full issue of Charleston Currents in the S.C. Encyclopedia entry.

Congratulations to the readers who correctly identified the image:  George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Jim McMahan and Charlie King, both of Charleston; Marnie Huger of Richmond, Va.; Cheryl Smithem of Summerville; and Bud Ferillo of Columbia.

Smithem shared this: “Years ago, I gave a regular talk at the Gibbes Art Gallery about the Charleston Renaissance. I love Hutty’s works and his reported quote when he visited Charleston for the initial time: ‘Come quick. Have found heaven.’ … I fear that it is not quite as heavenly as it was then. Too many hotels and too many people. We are becoming more and more like Venice, Italy: Strangled by our success and environment.”

Graf shared the quote about how Hutty moved to Charleston in 1919 “when he was in his early 40s and immediately cabled his wife —  “Come quickly. Have found heaven.” Hutty had worked as a stained glass designer in Kansas City and at Tiffany Glass Studios in New York. He had a long association with the Woodstock, NY art community and with Lowell Birge Harrison, who was also a mentor of fellow Charleston artist Alice Ravenel Huger Smith. Even after he moved to Charleston, Hutty maintained a studio in Woodstock until his death in 1954. Primarily an oil and watercolor painter, Hutty did not seriously take up etching until after his move to Charleston but quickly demonstrated his complete mastery of the medium, winning national awards and was the first American to be elected to the British Society of the Graphic Arts.”  (Source: AshevilleArt.com).

Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)   Send it along to  editor@charlestoncurrents.com.