Charles Hutin 

Biography of Charles Hutin  ( 1847-1898 )

Although he was born in Paris in 1847, little is known about Charles Hutin's youth and artistic training. He was a pupil of Léon Légat, from whom he learned rigorous drawing techniques, meticulous craftsmanship and a certain taste for the Flemish masters of the 17th century. Discreet and independent, he pursued a career far removed from the major official trends, preferring the suspended moments and domestic silences offered by the intimacy of his daily life to history painting.
Exhibiting regularly at the Salon from 1874 onwards, the artist attracted the attention of art lovers with his subtle genre scenes and finely composed still lifes. Elected a member of the Salon des Artistes Français in 1883, Hutin also became involved in certain avant-garde circles and, in October of that same year, took part in the first exhibition of the Arts Incohérents, a group recently founded by Jules Lévy. The following year, he took part in the first edition of the Salon des Indépendants, before joining the Société Nationale des Beaux-arts in 1890, where he definitively established his reputation as an artist of singular talent.

Charles Hutin belongs to a generation of artists for whom the second half of the 19th century was a time of renewal in taste and pictorial genres. In the second half of the 19th century, still life painting experienced a remarkable revival in France, oscillating between fidelity to Dutch traditions and the search for modernised effects. While the Salon continued to promote scholarly compositions based on accurate drawing and technical virtuosity, a generation of painters—including Antoine Vollon, Théodule Ribot, François Bonvin, Henri Fantin-Latour and Jean-Baptiste Robie—explored the expressive and material possibilities of the genre. Heirs to realism, these artists paid increased attention to textures, lighting effects and the silent presence of everyday objects, sometimes transfiguring them into noble subjects.
At the same time, the rise of collections, decorative art and objects from the Far East inspired more sumptuous compositions, similar to those found in amateur cabinets. This context favoured painters such as Charles Hutin, who combined descriptive rigour, a taste for materials and, at times, a narrative or satirical vein, renewing the tradition of still life at the end of the century. Hutin was fully part of this movement. The titles of the works he exhibited at the Salon between 1874 and 1882 confirm his specialisation in still life, a field in which his talent is evident in the precision of the details and the richness of the compositions.

Although there is currently no documented evidence of friendship, collaboration or direct contact between Hutin and the leading still life specialists of his time, his works nevertheless reveal an aesthetic affinity with that generation. His work shares with Vollon a taste for dense materials, with Fantin-Latour a subtlety of staging, and with Ribot and Bonvin a value placed on light as a revealer of objects. He belongs to that constellation of sometimes discreet artists whose output contributed to the vitality of a genre highly prized by collectors and Salon juries.

Based at 40 Rue d'Aboukir in Paris, in the heart of a neighbourhood bustling with art dealers, antique dealers and studios, Hutin evolved in an environment that nurtured his taste for rare objects and curiosities. The Langres Museum houses his painting La Pâtée, an intimate work that confirms his mastery of the genre.