David Con and Helen Hutton (née Douglas)

David Con Hutton was the foundation principal of the Dunedin School of Art and a key influence on generations of Otago-trained artists. Born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1843, David was the youngest of seven children. His father died when he was just five. David managed to secure a good education nonetheless, gaining qualifications from Scottish institutions affiliated to the influential South Kensington Department of Art and Science in London. In 1865 he was appointed Art Master at the Perth School of Art. Four years later he won the post in Dunedin at its newly established art school. He emigrated on the Christian McAusland in 1869 with his wife, Catherine McCallum, and their young son. Catherine Hutton gave birth to another child during their voyage but the baby did not survive the journey. Catherine herself died just seven months after their arrival in Dunedin.

In 1872 David married Helen Bryden Douglas. He owes his position on the wall here to his wife’s arrival on the Jura in 1858 when she was 10 years old. Despite his prominence in Dunedin art history David Con Hutton had arrived too late to be classed as an ‘early settler’ and earn a spot in this gallery. He was, however, a very important figure in the development of art and art teaching in Otago. For 38 years he was the guiding force of the Dunedin School of Art and responsible for curriculum development for all the art teaching in Otago schools.

Helen Hutton appears twice in the portrait sequence. In this portrait she is an older woman, the mother of 10 children. In the portrait just to the right, she appears as the 10-year-old girl who arrived in Otago in 1858 and is pictured with her mother and younger sister. These twin portraits offer a remarkable ‘time machine’ to show what the settlers actually looked like when they first reached Otago. Most of the portraits displayed here show the settlers in their later lives and give the impression that Otago was pioneered by a bunch of old-timers. Helen’s face is easily recognised in the two portraits and helps us imagine a similar roll-back of the effects of time on all of the faces displayed here.

David Con Hutton died at Broad Bay in 1910, aged 70. Helen died in 1922, aged 73.