Watercolor on paper, Framed , signed right corner
Sight: 22.25″ x 14.75″
Framed: 30.5″ x 23
Provenance: Klinkhoff Gallery Montreal #288
Source: National Gallery of Canada
Jack Weldon Humphrey (1901-1967) was born in Saint John, New Brunswick on January 12th, 1901. From 1920 to 1923, Humphrey studied at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts under Philip Hale (1865-1931), learning to draw the figure with charcoal. He was subsequently enrolled from 1924 to 1929 at the National Academy of Design in New York, where he studied painting under Charles Hawthorne (1872-1930) for two years. In the late 1920s Humphrey spent his summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts and at the Cape Cod School of Art, where he continued to study with Hawthorne. Travelling abroad for nine months in 1930, Humphrey studied painting at Hans Hofmann’s (1880-1966) school in Munich from March to May. The Depression forced him to remain in Saint John upon his return, except for a trip in 1933 to Vancouver and in 1938 to Mexico. Humphrey painted still lifes, portraits, landscapes, and figures in oil and watercolour. He was affiliated with many artist groups, including the Canadian Group of Painters (founding member, 1937); the Eastern Group in Montreal, 1938 (later, the Contemporary Arts Society); the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (Director, 1944; Vice-President, 1945); and the Canadian Society of Graphic Art (Regional Representative, 1946; Eastern Vice-President, 1951; Regional Representative, 1956, 1959). In March 1945, Humphrey was appointed to the art staff of Queen’s University Summer School, in Kingston, Ontario, to teach painting. Humphrey has also been honoured with numerous awards including a Doctor of Laws by the University of New Brunswick in 1951; a Canadian Government-Royal Society Overseas Fellowship to paint in France for a year in 1952; and a Canada Council Senior Arts Fellowship in 1960. In 1966-1967, a retrospective exhibition of his work was organized by the National Gallery of Canada that toured through Canada. Humphrey died of a heart attack on March 23rd, 1967, in Saint John, New Brunswick. After his death, Jack Humphrey’s wife, Jean, was very active in the promotion and sale of his work.
