Charles W. Hutson was born in McPhersonville, South Carolina in 1840. Hutson gave up a career in law. He taught at the University of Mississippi, Louisiana State University, and Texas A & M as well as several other schools in the South. In 1909, he retired and moved to New Orleans where he spent most of his time painting.

Although he was initially instructed by his daughter, Ethel Hutson, artist and secretary to the director of Delgado Museum of Art, Hutson is considered primarily self taught. He began sketching in pastel as early as 1905, but it was not until 1908 that he began painting actively. His earliest subjects were pastels of French Quarter buildings, but he eventually turned to nature s...