Harry Rutherford 1961-69

MAFA President 1961-1969

Harry Rutherford attended the Manchester School of Art together with the likes of Lowry. Rutherford was the first and youngest pupil to enrol in Walter Sickert’s new school of art in Manchester in 1925. In 1931 Harry moved to London, where the emergence of television provided him with opportunities, thanks to his ability to sketch rapidly. From 1937 to 1939 Rutherford appeared regularly in the BBC’s Cabaret Cartoons where he drew the performers of variety shows as they did their act. From 1950-1956, he starred in his own program, Harry Rutherford’s Sketchbook.

While exhibiting in numerous London galleries, he was invited to hold a series of exhibitions in Borneo in 1957, becoming the first western artist to do so. He returned to Hyde in the late 1950s and was elected President of MAFA. In his later years, he taught at the Regional College of Art in Manchester and his pupils included the internationally renowned painter Geoffrey Key.

Have a look at Harry Rutherford’s distinctive style of painting.