One of the artistic leaders of the Charleston Renaissance, Alfred Hutty was born in Grand Haven, Michigan and grew up in the midwest. At age 15, he earned a scholarship to the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. In 1907 Hutty traveled to Woodstock, New York to study under Birge Harrison and established himself as a regular resident of the Art Students League summer art colony there.

Hutty first traveled to Charleston in 1919, looking for a place to spend the winter. He returned in 1920-24, to teach at the school of the Gibbes Museum, and thereafter spent time seasonally between homes and studios in Charleston and Woodstock. In Charleston Hutty embraced the friendship, collaboration, and activities of of local printmakers and other cultural leaders, such as DuBose Heyward and John Bennett. He began etching in Charleston in 1921, and was a founding member of the etchers's club in 1923. He earned a national reputation as a printmaker in the 1920s and the following decades. Hutty's work reveals his varied artistic roots in the social realism of the modern, urban midwest, and the picturesque landscape traditions of Woodstock and Charleston. A recognized master of the etching medium, he produced numerous views of Charleston's high-style and vernacular architecture, street scenes, and plantation life.

For artist's biography, see Boyd Saunders and Ann McAden, Alfred Hutty and the Charleston Renaissance (Orangeburg: Sandlapper, 1990).

Biography courtesy of The Charleston Renaissance Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/charleston