Jutsum, Henry
Henry Jutsum (1816 –1869) was born in London and educated in Devon. There he acquired a taste for landscape painting, and on returning to London to further his art studies, he drew from nature, frequently in Kensington Gardens. In 1830 (or possibly later in 1839) he became an apprentice to artist James Stark (of the Norwich School of Painters). The strong topographical focus of the Norwich School was highly compatible with Jutsum’s style.
He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836 (aged 19) and would exhibit there every year except 1867 until his death. He also showed work at the British Institution, a private art society in Suffolk Street, London. He devoted himself for some time to watercolour painting, probably because of the influence of the work of John Sell Cotman (the head of the Norwich School since 1821), and in 1843 was elected a member of the New Watercolour Society. He continued, however, to exhibit at the Royal Academy, and preferring painting in oil, eventually resigned his membership of the Watercolour Society (in 1847). He exhibited at the Suffolk Fine Art Association in Ipswich in 1850 and in the same year at the West of Scotland Academy.
He continued to paint from nature, embarking upon numerous painting trips across the country, from Devon to the Scottish Highlands. That he was able to travel so regularly hints at his growing commercial success. Jutsum’s exhibited works suggest that he first visited the west coast of Scotland in 1852 or 1853. He exhibited three Scottish views including `Glen Rosa, Isle of Arran’ at the British Institution in 1853. His studio sale at Christie’s in 1870 included fourteen watercolours of Arran.
He was a frequent contributor to the chief exhibitions up to his death, and his works were always greatly admired. "The Noonday Walk" in the Royal Collection was engraved for "The Art Journal" and "The Foot Bridge" is in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Henry Jutsum remained unmarried throughout his life. Between 1851 and 1861, he lived at 6 Prospect Place, Paddington, with his older brother Rowland. The pair then moved to 88 Hamilton Terrace, in the affluent suburb of St John’s Wood, where he lived until his death in 1869. A sale of 'the remaining works of that accomplished landscape painter, the late Henry Jutsum comprising about 200 pictures and drawings and sketches in oil and water colours' were sold by auction at Christie’s in 1870.
References