Charles François Hutin

1715 Paris – 1776 Dresden

The sculptor, painter and printmaker Charles François Hutin was first introduced to painting by François Lemoine in Paris. In 1737 he went as a pensionnaire to the Académie de France in Rome, where he was to remain until 1744. While there he devoted himself mainly to sculpture under the guidance of Sébastien Slodtz. After his return to Paris he was admitted to full membership of the Académie royale in 1747. Shortly afterwards, in 1748, Hutin had a surprising stroke of good fortune when he went, together with his brother, Pierre, to Dresden to enter the service of the Elector August II of Saxony. He was to work in the Saxon royal capital until his death. One of Hutin’s first tasks was to collaborate on the compilation initiated by C. H. von Heinecken under the title Recueil d’Estampes d’après les plus célèbres tableaux de la Galerie Royale de Dresde, whose first volume appeared in 1753. Hutin did the preliminary drawings for this extensively illustrated reference work, which were transferred to the printmaking medium by a team of well-known French reproductive engravers. Subsequently Hutin distinguished him­self mainly as a painter. In 1762 he was appointed director of the old Dresden Painting Academy and also “Master Acade­mician and Historical Painter”. After the founding of the new Academy in 1764 he occupied a leading position in this institution until his death.