Painted by Vannessa Bell. Picture in the Tate:

“An outstanding example of Vanessa Bell's 'Fauve' manner, and a highly characteristic Bloomsbury portrait in that artist and sitter were well known to each other, Vanessa Bell and her husband Clive being part of the St John Hutchinsons' wide circle of friendship and acquaintance in the world of arts and letters. For example, also in the collection of the Tate Gallery is a group portrait by another painter they knew well, Henry Tonks, showing them among a gathering of the friends of the distinguished author and modern art critic George Moore, at his home in the Vale, Chelsea. This painting is one of four portraits of Mary St John Hutchinson, two by Vanessa Bell and two by Duncan Grant, all apparently done at the same time, in three days of sittings on the 5th, 9th and 11th of February 1915, at the Hutchinson's London home. In a letter to Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell wrote 'on Friday we painted Mary. Duncan got very desperate and began his again which I think I ought to have done too but I didn't. It is a frightfully difficult arrangement for I'm bang in front of her and everything is very straight and simple and very delicate colour.' It seems likely that it is the Tate Gallery version of the portrait to which she is referring since it is certainly remarkable for its beautiful colour scheme of delicate pink and near-complementary acid yellow-green. Characteristic Fauve touches also, are the blue-green shadows on the cheek-bone and beneath the lower lip of the full mouth, which is sensuously realised in a darker, more luscious pink. The sharp blue eyes and alert posture bring the sitter very much to life, and while this picture is a striking work of art in terms of its abstract qualities of colour and composition, its interest stems equally from its vivid evocation of a personality and mood.”



Born in 1889 to Sir Hugh Barnes and Winifred Strachey Barnes, Mary (Barnes) Hutchinson spent her early childhood in India before being sent to boarding school in England. In 1910 she married a lawyer, St. John Hutchinson, and about the same time her cousin and confidante Lytton Strachey and his friend Duncan Grant introduced her to the Bloomsbury group.
Initially shy in the company of this artistic group of people, Hutchinson soon entered into the spirit of Bloomsbury, becoming a generous hostess and patroness. Surrounded by writers as she was, it is perhaps not surprising that she also took to writing, publishing a single volume of short stories and essays, Fugitive Pieces, in 1927. Hutchinson also became deeply involved in the lives of her friends and, in the manner of the Bloomsbury group, maintained a long term affair with Clive Bell which was not particularly discreet. On the other hand she seems to have maintained a similarly lengthy relationship with Aldous and Marie Huxley, without, it is thought, the knowledge of her husband or Bloomsbury in general. She also provided a great deal of emotional support to T.S. and Vivienne Eliot, helping both of them through their divorce, and remaining in touch with Vivienne as her mental faculties deteriorated.
Hutchinson remained actively involved with the arts throughout her life. Interested in the art and literature of modern France, she was an early supporter of Samuel Beckett and later championed the Royal Shakespeare Company. Even at the age of 70 she was interested in change and new expressions in art, supporting the publication of the avant-garde literary and artistic magazine, X. She died in 1977, survived by her only child, Lord Hutchinson of Lullington.