29 Facts About Frank Rutter

Francis Vane Phipson Rutter was a British art critic, curator and activist.

Frank Rutter was an early champion in England of modern art, founding the French Impressionist Fund in 1905 to buy work for the national collection, and in 1908 starting the Allied Artists Association to show "progressive" art, as well as publishing its journal, Art News, the "First Art Newspaper in the United Kingdom".

Frank Rutter was born at 4 The Cedars, Putney, London, the youngest son of Henry Rutter and Emmeline Claridge Phipson, daughter of Samuel Ryland Phipson, a landowner and stock- and share-broker from a family of pin and needle manufacturers.

Frank Rutter's grandfather, John, and his father were both prosperous solicitors with chambers in Clifford's Inn, Holborn, and both had acted for John Ruskin, John assisting on Ruskin's marriage nullification with Euphemia Gray; Henry severed the connection with Ruskin, after the latter rejected his counsel on a property transaction.

Frank Rutter obtained posts as assistant editor of To-day and the Sunday Special, both part of the same publishing group.

Frank Rutter honed his skills whilst doing the job, and made the acquaintance of leading artists in Paris through frequenting the cafes.

In 1903 the creation of the National Art Collections Fund initiated many years of frustration for Frank Rutter, who believed it would siphon off available money from his own aims.

Frank Rutter was a strong supporter of Impressionist and Expressionist Modernism.

Frank Rutter considered "perfectly dreadful" the lack of such work in the national collections, pointing out in 1905 that the only example of the modern French school was Edgar Degas' The Ballet from Robert the Devil in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Frank Rutter was a natural organiser and, with the help of Lucien Pissarro attracted 80 members.

On 30 August 1909 Frank Rutter married Thirz Sarah, whose father, James Henry Tiernan, was a member of the New Zealand Police.

On 12 January 1910, at the Eustace Miles Restaurant, Frank Rutter chaired the meeting of a group which developed into the Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement, of which he was the honorary treasurer.

Frank Rutter had put the term Post-Impressionist in print in Art News of 15 October 1910, three weeks before Fry's show, during a review of the Salon d'Automne, where he described Othon Friesz as a "post-impressionist leader"; there was an advert in the journal for the show The Post-Impressionists of France.

Frank Rutter continued to advocate new ventures in art through his column "Round the galleries" in The Sunday Times.

Frank Rutter used his house at 7 Westfield Terrace, Chapel Allerton, Leeds, to provide accommodation for suffragettes released from prison under the Cat and Mouse Act and recovering from hunger strike.

Frank Rutter did not agree with the later, more extreme tactics of the WSPU leaders, who nevertheless still commanded his respect and admiration.

Frank Rutter encouraged the artist, Emily Susan Ford, Vice-chairman of the Artists' Suffrage League and exhibited her work in the Leeds gallery.

Frank Rutter initially had plans to create a modern art collection at the Leeds gallery, but had been frustrated in this aim by "boorish" local councillors; his association with the escape of Lilian Lenton had further damaged his standing.

In October 1913, Frank Rutter was commissioned by the Dore Gallery at 35 Bond Street in the West End to curate the Post-Impressionist and Futurist Exhibition, which displayed the story of those movements from Camille Pissarro to Vorticist Wyndham Lewis.

Frank Rutter praised Nevinson's The Departure of the Train De Luxe as "the first English Futurist picture".

From 1915 to 1919, Frank Rutter returned to the Allied Artists' Association in the guiding role of chairman.

Frank Rutter was the London Correspondent for the Association Francaise d'Expansion et d'Echanges Artistiques.

Frank Rutter suffered from a bronchial complaint for a number of years, as a result of which he periodically sojourned on the South Coast, visiting London exhibitions when he felt in good enough health to do so.

Frank Rutter wrote his Sunday Times article up to a week before his death.

Frank Rutter left his estate, which included around 80 paintings by the likes of Gilman, Ginner, Gore and Lucien Pissarro, to his wife.

Frank Rutter was tall with an incisive profile, an enthusiastic character and a strong manner of delivery.

Frank Rutter was a supportive friend and good company who injected conversations with humour, for which he adopted an "uncular" manner.

Frank Rutter was modest and generous, not motivated by personal ambition, but advancing the interests of art and artists over any profit for himself.

Frank Rutter's approach was not that of an intellectual applying logic impersonally, but through aesthetic intuition and an empathy for the creative process.