One of the delights of looking deeply into someone’s life is
the connections that come, often unbidden, often unexpected. Elizabeth Bishop
had a fascinating immediate maternal family and an intriguing set of ancestors.
(I am sure her paternal side was interesting, too, but my research has focused
on her maternal side.) One of my favourite of her relatives was one of her great-uncles,
the painter George W. Hutchinson. As Chapter Three of Lifting Yesterday tries to convey, the connections between him and
Bishop were many and complex, some quite direct and literal, some rather
oblique and mysterious.
It was too bad that Bishop never met her great-uncle – I am
sure they would have hit it off, as George Hutchinson had a wonderful sense of
humour and a truly curious sort of life. I have been looking into his life with
my friend and colleague Lilian Falk since the early 1990s. Lilian was one of
those wondrous synchoronicities that happen – and I am most grateful that
George, in is own strange way, brought us together.
I have also had the great pleasure of connecting with
several people in the U.K. who have a direct line of descent from George. First, perhaps
ten years ago now, came Pat and Graham Kench. Pat is the great-niece of Lily
Yerbury, George’s second wife. The Kenches visited Nova Scotia in June 2011 and they brought
with them a remarkable self-portrait George did in 1914, when he was in his
early 60s. It hangs in the EB House, and eventually will go to Acadia University.
Second, about three years ago, came Jayne Lawrence, one of
George’s great-grandchildren. She is the daughter of Gordon (Hutchinson) King, who was the son of Victor
Jubilee (Hutchinson) King, who was one of George’s youngest sons. Jane provided
me with important material she had located in her family research. Thank you Jayne. She also
sent me a dear painting done by her father, Gordon – especially for me – a treasured
possession.
Third, late last year, came Matthew Hutchinson, the son of
Marty Hutchinson, who was the son of Benjamin Hutchinson, George’s oldest
child. Matthew has kindly sent to me a number of photographs, one of them the
earliest image of George Hutchinson I have ever seen – a very young man,
probably at the beginning of his illustrating career in the 1880s. Matthew has
kindly given me permission to post this image of George, the first time, I
think, that it has been publicly shown. George had a way with a moustache!
From all of these wonderful people, I have learned a great deal
about George Hutchinson, and with each discovery, it became clearer that
George’s life was full, complex and deeply interesting in its own right, not
just to his great-niece Elizabeth Bishop.
You can learn more about George Hutchinson by subscribing to
Lifting Yesterday. It is still
possible to do so – go to the “Lifting Yesterday” link at the top of the page
to find out how to subscribe.
Over the years I have written essays about George
Hutchinson’s connection to Bishop. My first essay was presented at the first
Bishop symposium to be held, at Vassar
College, in September
1994. Most of that essay was integrated into Chapter Three of Lifting
Yesterday. My collaboration with Lilian Falk triggered another essay, “What’s
in a Name: The Gilbert Stuart Newton Plaque Error” (which, in spite of its
title, is indeed about George Hutchinson). This latter essay was published in Acadiensis in the Autumn 1995 issue. I
have a pdf of this file if anyone is interested. Or you can find it in the Acadiensis archives: http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/index.
Lilian Falk wrote a wonderful essay about George
Hutchinson’s illustrating career, which was presented to the Royal Nova Scotia
Historical Society and appeared in its Journal
in Vol. 9, 2006. My name is included as co-author, but it is primarily
Lilian’s work. I can send this as a pdf, too. Lilian co-wrote an intriguing
essay about George, “George Hutchinson, a Canadian Illustrator of Robert Louis
Stevenson’s Treasure
Island,” which appeared in Canadian Children’s Literature (now
Jeunesse Journal), Vol., 25:4, No.
96, 1999. The journal’s site is searchable if you register, so it can be found
there.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment