ARTIST: Charles Christopher Krutch (Tennessee, South Carolina, 1849 - 1934)
NAME: Landscape
MEDIUM: watercolor on paper
CONDITION: Minor foxing. Framed under glass. Some damages to frame.
SIGHT SIZE: 7 x 13 inches / 17 x 33 cm
FRAME SIZE: 11 x 17 inches / 27 x 43 cm
SIGNATURE: lower left
SKU#: 120239
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BIOGRAPHY:
Charles Krutch was born in South Carolina, the son of Emile and Emma (Wiersing) Krutch, who emigrated from Germany in the political turmoil of 1848. His father was a music teacher who married one of his former pupils. For a time they lived at the German settlement of Wartburg in Morgan County, East Tennessee. They may have lived in Virginia also, but by 1861 the family was in Knoxville. Krutch lived in Knoxville for the rest of his life, except for a period after the Civil War when he studied and worked with a photographer in Atlanta.In 1893, Krutch was working in Knoxville as an operator and retoucher for McCrary and Branson, which dealt in both photographs and paintings. In 1904 he become retoucher at Brakebill and McCoy Studio, and he continued with William J. McCoy Studio until his death.For many years Krutch was organist at St. John's EpiscopalChurch and Church of the Epiphany in Knoxville. His main avocation, however, was painting. He was entirely self-taught. The mountains were his only subjects. In the summer he took a train to Sevierville, and then by wagon went deep into the Smokies, where he spent weeks at a time living with a local family and doing sketches. His favorite areas were Le Conte, the Sugarland Valley and Chimney Tops.Krutch converted his sketches into paintings in Knoxville. Early in his career he worked in watercolors. Then the artist tried oils, which sometimes he applied with his fingers, as his canvases attest. His oils were murky and not as accomplished as his watercolors, to which he returned later in life. He sold his pictures through Gagg Picture Framery in Knoxville. He attracted notice for his paintings at the Appalachian Exposition in Knoxville in 1910. Later, some fellow artists called him the Corot of the South."At the age of 84 he was the first artist to receive a U.S. government commission from the Public Works of Art (PWA) Project. He produced at least two canvasses for a federally-sponsored traveling exhibition. He died on July 4, 1934.He never married. His sister, Louise Wilhelmen Krutch, kept house for him.