Sidney Charles Hutchison, CVO

Sidney Hutchison (‘Hutch’), the son of a carpenter, was born in north London on 26 March 1912 and brought up by his aunts and grandfather, a piano maker, his mother having died when he was a month old. He went to Holloway School and, though he grew up in a very modest household, Hutchison’s talent for music was fostered. He played the piano, sang in a choir and was an accomplished organist by the age of twelve. His introduction to the Royal Academy of Arts, which he served for seventy years in one capacity or another, was fortuitous but fortunate for all concerned. Aged seventeen and a keen musician, he heard of a vacancy on the staff of the Royal Academy and went for an interview under the impression that he was in the Royal Academy of Music. Nevertheless, he was taken on as a junior clerk at two guineas a week in 1929 when the Academy had few employees and, at a pinch, they all helped each other out. Hutchison’s appointment coincided with preparations for Italian Art 1200–1900, the first of a series of superb international loan exhibitions held between 1930 and 1935. This was followed by Persian Art in 1931, French Art 1200–1900 in 1932 and Chinese Art in 1935. As the administrative burden of mounting such ambitious projects increased, so Hutchison was called on to play a greater part in their organisation. Music still loomed large in his life and from 1933 to 1937 he was organist and choirmaster at St Matthew’s Church, Westminster, but relinquished the post to undertake an extra-mural course in art history at London University. When war was declared one of his last tasks at the Academy, before enlisting in the Royal Navy, was to supervise the removal, via a narrow spiral staircase, of the Michelangelo Tondo from its niche on the top floor, and transport it by van to Moorgate underground station for safekeeping. Having joined the Royal Navy as a supply assistant, Hutchison was trained as an officer and served in the aircraft-carrier, HMS Furious, in the North Sea, the Mediterranean and the Pacific; as lieutenant commander in 1945 he led one of the first shore parties to set foot in Hong Kong after the Japanese surrender. He returned to Burlington House in 1946, completed his art history diploma course (with distinction), and was appointed librarian in 1949. He combined this post with the Secretaryship for Loan Exhibitions from 1955, while teaching art history in the evenings at the Extra-Mural Department of London University from 1957 to 1967. On the resignation of Humphrey Brooke in 1968, Hutchison was appointed Secretary of the Royal Academy. Times were hard, despite the contentious sale to the National Gallery in 1962 of one of the RA’s most celebrated possessions, Leonardo’s cartoon for The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist, albeit for considerably less than was offered by three American galleries. The sale price, fixed at £800,000, was raised by public subscription, a government grant and a donation from the National Art Collections Fund. It would seem, therefore, that the financial tide had turned but, by the time Hutchison succeeded to the secretaryship six years later, the temporary respite was over; costs were rising relentlessly, particularly for insurance, packing and transport of the priceless exhibits, and the RA was getting a bad press.Hutchison was, neverthless, lucky with the Presidents with whom he worked. Sir Thomas Monnington, elected in 1967, was by nature cautious and catholic but still something of a new broom; he opened discussions with the Arts Council, the Institute of Contemporary Arts and other bodies and invited women (just a few) to the Annual Dinner for the first time. (Hutchison’s influence could be detected in this innovation – he loved the company of women and they loved him.) The first major exhibition of Hutchison’s term of office was The Bauhaus which was a runaway success but lasted for only five weeks before it had to close to make way for the vast Bicentenary Exhibition, 1768–1968, which proved an expensive failure. The exhibition marked not only the end of two centuries of fluctuating fortune but signalled a fresh approach to the RA’s activities if, at a time of galloping inflation, it was not to fall deeper into the financial abyss. Hutchison submitted a memorandum containing some twelve recommendations aimed at increasing income.Critical though the situation was, the climate was not yet right for the introduction of radical measures into such a traditional institution and only one, the imposition of fees in the Schools, was accepted by the General Assembly, though even that was not implemented until eight years later. But the ground had been broken, or at least cracked, and some of Hutchison’s twelve recommendations, such as sponsorship from commerce and industry, higher entry fees on submissions and commission on sales for the Summer Exhibition, and the hire of the galleries for outside functions, were gradually adopted on the nod. The traditional art historical exhibitions were continued during Monnington’s presidency and were greatly influenced by Hutchison, who loved them. Monnington died suddenly in 1976 and was succeeded by the showman manqué, Sir Hugh Casson, who immediately embarked on a roller-coaster ride to restore the Academy’s finances and raise its profile,. The Friends of the Royal Academy was established and is now one of the largest such organisations in Europe; Hutchison’s remaining recommendations of 1968 were instituted and a trading company and framing department set up. Throughout this whirlwind of activity, Hutchison remained imperturbable as the publicity stunts became more and more bizarre, his benign poker face showing neither approval nor disapproval. He continued to organise exhibitions, sometimes twelve in a year, to feed Casson’s insatiable appetite, and they became increasingly spectacular: The Gold of El Dorado, The Horses of San Marco and The Great Japan Exhibition to name only three. Hutchison retired as secretary, showered with presents, in 1982 and was guest of honour at a dinner hosted by the Academicians and a reception for three hundred past and present members of staff, friends and colleagues. Almost overnight he took up his duties as honorary archivist, working from a tiny basement room, from which he also served as a trustee of the Chantry Bequest and the E A Abbey Memorial Trust fund for Mural Painting. An FSA since 1955, he was appointed the RA’s Antiquary in 1992, an office once held by Mortimer Wheeler. Hutchison published The Homes of the Royal Academy (1956) and The History of the Royal Academy, 1768–1968 (1968; 2nd edition 1986), as well as articles for the Walpole Society, Apollo and Museums Journal, among other publications. Hutchison was, of course, the senior member of the Burlington House courtyard, approached only by John Hopkins, four years his junior, who joined the Antiquaries in 1933 and retired as librarian in 1986. They were life-long friends and together constituted a club with membership limited to employees at Burlington House for half a century. It was always going to be a club of only two; now, alas, one. Hutchison was essentially clubbable, convivial and a lively raconteur. He loved parties and his relaxed, tactful personality was invaluable to the Academy in its negotiations with ambassadors and foreign government officials over the loan of national treasures, and also in its relations with members of the royal family who were regularly entertained there in Hutch’s day. Sadly, his last years were blighted by ill health and blindness and he died on 22 April 2000.