A nationally prominent painter of the "American Scene," Yvonne Twining Humber's career has spanned eight decades of critically acclaimed work.
The artist was born in New York City and raised in Europe and New England where she received her first art instruction at South Egremont, MA. She first studied with neighbors Charles and Katherine Almond Hulbert, well-known American Impressionists. She then studied at the National Academy of Design in NY from 1925 to 1931, the Art Students League, 1928-1931, and with Charles Hawthorne. In 1933-34, she won two consecutive Tiffany Foundation Fellowships at Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY

From 1935 to 1943 she was employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as an easel painter in Boston, MA. It was during her period on the WPA that she established a national reputation for her remarkable urban and rural landscapes. Her works were often singled out by critics who praised her unique, highly refined paintings and they were often reproduced in newspapers and art publications of the period.

Following her 1943 marriage to Irving Humber, the artist relocated to Seattle where Mr. Humber was a local businessman. She quickly established herself in Seattle's art community, bringing with her an impressive East Coast reputation and a hard-edged urban realism that was not commonplace in the Northwest. She won numerous local awards and had two of her paintings purchased by the Seattle Art Museum for their permanent collection after a very successful one-woman show there in 1946. That same year she won first prize in painting in a national competition at the Smithsonian Institute.

She was one of the few Seattle painters to have her work accepted in important national exhibitions during the 1940's, often depicting Seattle city scenes and northwest landscapes in her inimitable style.

She taught locally for many years and was a member of many local arts organizations. She was a Life Member of WPW and served as President in 1948.

Her exhibition history includes Seattle Art Museum, Henry Art Gallery, Worlds Fair, NY, 1939, Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, DC, Palace Of The Legion Of Honor, San Francisco, CA, Denver Art Museum, National Academy of Design, NY.and numerous other venues.

Yvonne Humber, 1990

Indans Gambling, 1946, serigraph

Untitled (Underwater Fantasy), 1970, acrylic on paper

Publications:

Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945
Patricia Trenton
University of California Press.

Woman's Art Journal
Yvonne Twining Humber: An Artist of the Depression Era, Fall/Winter 1996,
Vol 16, No. 3.

The Woman Artist and the American West: 1860-1960
Kovinick
University of Texas Press, 1998.

Permanent Collections:

Seattle Art Museum
Tacoma Art Museum
Seattle University
Bellevue Art Museum
Library of Congress
Seattle School District
Malden Public Library, Malden, MA
Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
Robert Hull Fleming Musuem,
University of Vermont
Dept of Public Works, Boston, MA
Wolfsonian Inst.,
Miami, FL & Genoa, Italy
Robert McLauchlin Gallery Museum,
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada

©David Martin
& the artist's estate.
Do not reproduce text
or images without
written permission
from David Martin