Charles Krutch (1887 – October 27, 1981) was a photographer in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. He was nicknamed the Corot of the South ( Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot) for his soft color work. His work is in a collection at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

. Krutch was born in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

. His brother Joseph Krutch became an author and professor of literature at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. His uncle, Charles Christopher Crutch (1849–1934), painted the

Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee– North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ri ...

. Krutch succeeded

Lewis Hine Lewis Wickes Hine (September 26, 1874 – November 3, 1940) was an American sociologist and muckraker photographer. His photographs were instrumental in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the United States. Early life ...

as photographer at the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

(TVA). The agency paid the independently wealthy Krutch, an aspiring photographer, $2,500 a year. He had taken pictures for the ''Knoxville News-Sentinel''. He received accolades from ''The New York Times'' and was recruited by another government agency to do a series of photos for its syphilis campaign. He retired from the TVA in 1954 after twenty years at the federal utility as a photographer and head of its graphic arts department. Upon his death in 1981, he bequeathed land to the city of Knoxville to create a “quiety retreat for the pleasure and health of the public.” Krutch Park now hosts a sculpture garden maintained by the Dogwood Arts Foundation, which changes the sculptures twice per year. The park is also a meeting point for social activism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krutch, Charles American photographers Photographers from Tennessee 1887 births 1981 deaths