Jack Weldon Humphrey: Portrait of an Artist in Saint John, New Brunswick, 1932-1967
Peter Larocque, Curator of NB Cultural History & Art, New Brunswick Museum
Saint John, New Brunswick, has a significant tradition of fine art. As the most populous city in the province, it has been home to a number of professional artists who have managed to support themselves through their art. During the mid-twentieth century, a small group of artists garnered a national reputation for the quality of their work. One of them, Jack Weldon Humphrey, was born into a prosperous middle-class merchant family, in Saint John in 1901. He trained in Boston, New York, Paris, Munichm and reluctantly returned from his studies to Saint John at the beginnings of the 1930s when his family’s resources were severely strained. Ultimately, he chose to stay and maintained a somewhat regretful relationship with the city until his death in 1967. Despite what might be considered this self-imposed limitation, Humphrey was convinced that he could make a living as a productive artist even though he lived within a small industrial city in a marginalized region of the country. This conviction underlies many of the strategies he undertook in pursuit of his goal. Membership in national and international professional art groups, frequent submissions to group exhibitions and the investigation of alternative production methods were some of the means he undertook to ensure his success. Within the context of Canadian art history, Humphrey’s work to 1950 is synonymous with representational views of Saint John and portraits of its citizens. Consequently, an important shift in the focus of his work during the last fifteen years of his life has been virtually ignored. This research project will investigate and analyze the factors that significantly impacted Humphrey’s efforts at recognition and creative progress while taking into consideration the impact of living in a particular industrial city where limited financial and intellectual support were available.