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John Hutchison was at a young age apprenticed to an Edinburgh wood carver whilst attending classes at the Trustees Academy continuing his studies there in the 1850s under Robert Scott Lauder. In 1870 Hutchison was tasked with designing and executing the memorial to Lauder in Edinburgh's Warrender Cemetery.

He received his first commission in 1852 when Patrick Allan Fraser engaged him in the decorative wood carving of the interiors of Hospitalfield Mansion House on the outskirts of Arbroath.

In the late 1850s he went to Rome where he worked and studied, the theme of Rome was to recur in much of his work.

In addition to his busts he also produced larger scale public commissions including that to Adam Black in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, a series of eight bronze portrait head roundels for the inner chamber of The Scott Monument at the same location, and the seated bronze of the Ironfounder and Engineer James Carmichael in Dundee's Albert Square.

He exhibited at the RSA between 1856 and 1905, he became an Associate Member of the RSA in 1862 and a Royal Scottish Academician in 1867.

He succeeded James Drummond as RSA Librarian in 1877 and served until his appointment as RSA Treasurer in 1886, which office he held until he resigned in 1907.

Hutchison was married to Margaret Ballantine the eldest of the off-spring of the stained glass designer and painter James Ballantine (1806-77).