Winding Road

Possibly acquired from the artist by Donald G. Humphrey (1920-1987), Tulsa, OK [1];

Mark Humphrey (1948-2020), Southampton, Long Island, New York, as Early Spring, by 1993 [2];

Purchased from Humphrey by Scott Heffley, Kansas City, MO, 1993-2022 [3];

His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2022.

NOTES:

[1] Donald G. Humphrey received a bachelor’s degree in drawing and painting in 1948 from the University of Kansas, where he would have studied under Albert Bloch, Head of the Department of Painting and Drawing until 1947. Humphrey later served as director of the Philbrook Art Center (today the Philbrook Museum of Art) in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1959-1975. Humphrey organized a retrospective exhibition of Bloch’s work, on display at the Philbrook March 7-31, 1961, during which time the artist passed away on March 23, 1961.

[2] The circumstances of Mark Humphrey’s acquisition of this work are currently unknown, but considering his father’s association with the artist, it is possible Mark Humphrey acquired it by descent and that his father acquired it either from the artist or the artist’s wife. Research is currently ongoing.

[3] This watercolor was offered for sale by Mark Humphrey at Moderne Kunst I, Ketterer Kunst, Munich, June 7, 1993, lot 32, as Early Spring, but failed to sell. Heffley purchased it through Ketterer Kunst following the sale.