Fonds ID2031 - Jack W. Humphrey

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Jack W. Humphrey

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CA MNBM ID2031

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12 pp of textual records

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Name of creator

(1901-1967)

Biographical history

Jack Weldon Humphrey (1901-1967) was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, one of the four sons of Charles Percy Humphrey and Nellie Alberta Weldon. His father was a member of J. M. Humphrey & Co., wholesale footwear dealers and his brothers were Dr. Richard Humphrey, professor at Stephens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey; Harry Humphrey of Kentville, Nova Scotia; and Donald Humphrey of Tappan, British Columbia. Jack Humphrey was married to Jean Elizabeth Fowler of Seymour, Connecticut.

Jack Humphrey displayed an interest in art from an early age. His studies at Mount Allison University were cut short by illness. Humphrey took his first formal art lessons at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, under Philip Hale from 1920 to1923. He then studied at the National Academy of Design in New York from 1924 to 1929 under Charles Hawthorne from whom he gained a background in painterly techniques of colour and pigment. In 1930, he spent 9 months travelling in Europe where he met Hans Hoffman, a great teacher of modern art, and studied with him briefly in Munich.

When he returned to Saint John, he used the techniques and ideas that he had learnt in Europe to paint 'regional portraits' of people suffering from the Depression and local children. In 1938, Jack Humphrey spent some months in Mexico, where he gained a new appreciation of contemporary artists in the Aztec, Maya, and Spanish traditions. In 1952, Jack Humphrey received a Canadian government and Royal Society of Canada fellowship to study in France where he developed an interest in abstraction which produced some of the best painting in Canada.

Jack Humphrey's contribution to Canadian painting in landscape, the figure and still life is considered substantial and he was one of the finest watercolourists in the country. His paintings can be found in many private and public collections including the National Gallery, the Art Gallery of Toronto, the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, Hart House, Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and the University of Toronto, Ontario.

Sources:
New Brunswick Museum art files and Colin S. Macdonald, A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volume 2, G to Jackson

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Information about the custody of this record prior to acquisition is incomplete.

Scope and content

This fonds consists of a typescript of a lecture by Jack Humphrey given at Mount Allison University Art Workshop in 1956. The lecture deals with the elements of painting, composition and design. It discusses Fauvism, Cubism and Impressionism as well as technique and colour theory for painting in both oil and watercolour, and basic materials used in art. The original lecture was apparently illustrated, but the illustrations are no longer present.

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  • English

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