Malcolm M. Humphreys (1892 – 1963)
by Edward Bentley
Born November 7, 1892, in Morristown, New Jersey, Malcolm Humphreys was one of five children in the family of Dr. Frank Landon Humphreys and his wife Jean Todd. Having obtained his early education at the local schools, he went on to receive his college education at Princeton, graduating from there in 1915.
Serious artistic study was undertaken with John W. Carlson, Charles W. Hawthorne, George E. Brown and Charles Rosen. The artist later painted numerous landscapes but became noted for his “lifelike” portraits. The artist and his wife Willafred (known as Billy), noted socialites and supporters of the local art scene, maintained numerous residences, including renting homes in Princeton, New Jersey, Palm Beach, Florida, and Concarneau, France. Their primary residence for the last 30 years of his life was in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan.
Humphreys maintained membership in numerous groups in support of the arts, including the Salmagundi Club, the Allied Artists of America, the American Federation of Arts, the Grand Central Gallery Association, and the American Artists Professional League while also being a founding member of the Palm Beach Art League.
The artist exhibited his work with the Southern Indiana Art League and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts among many other venues. Prizes won included the Third Hallgarten prize at the National Academy of Design in 1929, an honorable mention at the Allied Artists of America 1929, a prize at the Paris Salon in 1931 and the Four Arts Club “Elliott” prize in 1939 for the “most poetic painting” with his work “Harbor Concarneau.”
As a point of interest, the artist also had almost a dozen of his paintings photographed and included in the Peter A. Juley collection at the Smithsonian Museum.
Having suffered from Prostate cancer the last few years of his life, the artist died February 7, 1963, in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan.
The above information was taken from Mr. Humphreys’ death certificate, obituary, and listing in Who Was Who in American Art and from conversations with Sydney Ladd of the Morristown Public Library system. Mr. Humphreys was her great-uncle.
Girl in Yellow