The
William Humphreys Art Gallery, situated in Kimberley's Civic Centre, is
considered one of the finest art museums in South Africa and owes much of its
reputation to its principle benefactor, William Benbow Humphreys (1889-1965).
William
Humphreys was an avid collector of European and British paintings, furniture
and objects d'art. His collection was housed at his home in Carrington Road,
Kimberley, where he had an art gallery. In 1948, when the Northern Cape
Technical College was constructed on what
used to be the site of the Malay Camp, he donated a portion of his collection
to the people of Kimberley and the Northern Cape in consideration of his long
association with the public life of the Northern Cape and his desire to
further the interests of the said region. He had been a member of parliament
for the region for 19 years. The works for this donation were chosen by Dr
Anton Hendricks, Director of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and were housed at
the Northern Cape Technical College. The collection was known as the Humphreys
Bequest and comprised a selection of European and British paintings, furniture
and contemporary copies of classical sculptures. The terms of the donation
were that suitable premises should be constructed for an art gallery, which
was to house his donation and other South African art works as a Northern Cape
art collection. He donated £5 000 towards the building costs subject to
various terms and conditions, one of which was that the gallery should bear
his name.
As
an interim measure, the Humphreys Bequest hung at the Northern Cape Technical
College while the premises of the William Humphreys Art Gallery were planned
and constructed. The Technical College fell under the jurisdiction of the then
National Department of Education.
Harry
Oppenheimer opened the William Humphreys Art Gallery on 5 December 1952.
William Humphreys chaired the sub-committee of the Technical College Council
which ran the affairs of the gallery until 1957 when the gallery was
proclaimed a State-aided institution, directly under the jurisdiction of the
National Department of Education with the likes of, among others, the South
African National Gallery, the South African Museum and the Transvaal Museum.
The Council of the William Humphreys Art
Gallery was then appointed by the
Minister of Education, with representation by organisations that donated
funding, including De Beers, the Kimberley City Council, the Friends of the
Gallery and the Cape Provincial Administration.
There
was no staff to speak of at this time and firstly the sub-committee and later
council dealt with the administration and hung exhibitions. William Humphreys
who chaired the subcommittee and later the council was a poor administrator
and most of the early documentation pertaining to the gallery and collections
was lost. Understandably, as the works had all formed part of his private
collection, purchased from his own funds, he was a law unto himself and other
than the paintings from the original donation, shuffled works from his
personal collection to the gallery as his fancy took him. This portion of his
collection was known as the Humphreys Loan Collection and at the time of his
death in 1965 it was a sizeable collection. Obviously, the Humphreys Loan
Collection became part of his estate and would have been lost to the people of
Kimberley had his son Basil Humphreys not been able to persuade his sisters
and brother to sell him the collection. Ownership of the Humphreys Loan
Collection was transferred to Basil's son and became known as the Anthony
Humphreys Loan Collection and was retained at the gallery. Basil died in 1971
and in due course Anthony decided to dispose of the collection. The gallery
was unable to raise the funds and approached De Beers Consolidated Mines
Limited to purchase the collection in order that it might be saved for
Kimberley. It then became known as the Humphreys Collection on loan from De
Beers. It is housed at the gallery and together with the original Humphreys
Bequest is largely what William Humphreys collected in his life-time.
Although there have been various changes in the attributions over the years,
the Humphreys Bequest and Humphreys Collection on loan from De Beers still
boast many fine works by the likes of Jan Both, Govaert Flinck, Dirk Hals,
Caesar van Everdingen, Pieter Neefs, William Etty, Dame Laura Knight, Henry
Raeburn and Sir Peter Lely, to name but a few.
The
Kimberley Athenaeum was formed in 1903, with the Art Section being formed just
before World War I. Initially this was an art club that met at the public
library and after its members had been radically reduced by the war and the
Spanish Influenza, they decided to change the aim of the society to one which
collected South African works of art which it was hoped would one day hang in
an art gallery in Kimberley. They donated their collection of South African
art to the City of Kimberley in 1945. This collection was hung at the
municipal offices at the Kimberley City Hall and the
Kimberley Public Library. Their
intention had been that the collection should be included in an art gallery
for the people of Kimberley and when ownership was finally transferred to the
William Humphreys Art Gallery, it was evident that many works had been lost.
The prime mover behind the art section of the Kimberley Athenaeum was William
Timlin.
The
next important addition to the William Humphreys Art Gallery collection was
the bequest by Dr Max Greenberg of a selection of his personal collection of
South African works. He had attended Christian Brothers College in Kimberley
and had been a specialist physician in Johannesburg. The city council was to
be custodian and it appointed Doris Algie, amongst others, to make the
selection. This collection includes valuable works by Amshewitz, Oerder,
Wenning, Pierneef, Pilkington, Kibel and McCaw.
Archdeacon
of Kuruman and Mission Priest of Griqualand West for over 46 years, George
Merwyn Lawson (1865-1945) collected 247 original drawings and engravings by
French, Dutch, Flemish, English and Italian masters. This collection was
bequeathed to the Kimberley Public Library for the people of Kimberley. In
August 1991 ownership of the collection was transferred to the William
Humphreys Art Gallery and is referred to as the Lawson Collection. The
collection has been restored and conservation mounted and complements the
works collected by William Humphreys. It includes works by Stefano della
Bella, Sebastion Bourdon, Jacques Callot, Simone Cantarini, Annibale Carracci,
Sir Anthony van Dyck and Guercino and many others.
Nick
Meyer bequeathed his collection of silver, porcelain
and glass objet d'art to the William Humphreys Art Gallery and items on
display from this collection are always well received by visitors to the
gallery.
William
Timlin has always been an important personality in Kimberley, not only as a
Founder Member of the Art Section of the Kimberley Athenaeum and an important
member of Kimberley's architectural fraternity, but also as an artist of note.
The gallery's collection of his work, together with the Timlin Collection on
loan from De Beers forms the largest public collection of his work in the
country. William's brother Clifford had amassed a sizeable collection of his
work and had bequeathed this collection to his daughter-in-law and
grandchildren. The collection was put on the market in 1987 and yet again De
Beers stepped
into the breach and acquired the collection, which is housed at the gallery on
permanent loan.
There
are a couple of smaller loan collections of south African art housed at the
gallery and amongst the works in these collections are some magnificent
Sterns, as well as Van Wouws, Pierneef and Boonzaier. As
early as 1952 the sub-committee of the Council of the Northern Cape Technical
College began purchasing South African works of art. After the art gallery's
proclamation in 1957, successive councils continued to collect south African
art. Although funding for purchasing was ever paltry, the discerning choices
made by various acquisitions committees have stood the test of time and the
collection, although conservative in content, is well respected.
Unfortunately, funding for
acquisitions worsened over the years
and additions to the collection were few resulting in the collections becoming
a little static. However, in terms of balance the collection is not as flawed
as the politicians would have one believe, as councils have over the years
acquired good works by many black artists. There are gaps that need to be
filled and as affordable, suitable works become available on the market every
endeavour is made to fill these gaps and effect transformation of the
collection.
The
current collecting policy remains focused on South African art but now
includes a broader acceptance of traditional artefacts that were previously
relegated to ethnographic collections and ceramics and craft.
-Article by Ann Pretorius (Director), from De Arte, Volume 67,
April 2003.
