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Overview
The artist and designer Joseph Simpson (1879-1939) was born in Carlisle and studied at Glasgow School of Art. He started his professional career in Edinburgh, earning a living through book illustration. His studio in Castle Street was the meeting place for a small group of artists who called themselves jokingly the 'SPO', which stood for their favourite food of sausages, potatoes and onions. Its members included the young S.J. Peploe and J.D. Fergusson, who later became famous as the Scottish Colourists.
After ten years in Edinburgh, Simpson moved to London where he pursued a career as an illustrator and poster artist. Frank Brangwyn, who occupied the studio next door to Simpson, encouraged him to take up etching, and the highly successful results are evident in the three works by him that Te Papa currently holds. Simpson was appointed an official war artist in France during the First World War, attached to the RAF, for which he was awarded the CBE. In his paintings and prints, he excelled particularly in portraits and sporting themes.
Simpson's sitter for this etching was the churchman (Dean of Winchester) and historian of the church and India, William Holden Hutton (1860-1930). Evidently Hutton was in poor health for many years before his death, and this is to some extent hinted in Simpson's portrait, yet at the same time we sense that this is a distinguished man.
See: National Galleries Scotland, 'George Fiddes Watt', https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/3759/joseph-w-simpson-1879-1939-artist
Wikipedia, 'William Holden Hutton', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Holden_Hutton
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art May 2018