Woman of the Century/Maud Humphrey

MAUD HUMPHREY. HUMPHREY, Miss Maud, artist, born in Rochester, N. Y., 30th March, 1868. From early childhood she showed a fondness for sketching. She began her first studies when she was twelve years old, in Rochester, under the tuition of Rev. J. H. Dennis, in a free evening school which met twice a week. After two winters of instruction, during which time she took a few lessons in oils, her eyes failed, and for two years she was unable to use them, even to read. At sixteen she began to illustrate some children's magazines and books. The following winter she went to New York City to study in the Art Students' League. Her studies were occasionally interrupted by commissions for illustrating. Returning to Rochester, she took two terms of instruction in water-colors, which is the only water-color instruction she received. Each winter found her in New York, trying to find time from her illustrating to study in the League, but about two months each winter was all she ever secured. In the summer of 18S8 she painted a child's head for a friend, who took the picture to F. A. Stokes Co., to be framed. Mr. Stokes asked permission to correspond with Miss Humphrey, with regard to doing a book for him, which led to the successive years of work for that firm, for the past two years of which the firm had contracts for the sole control of her color work. Although best known as a child painter, she has done considerable work with older subjects, much of it in black and white, and she has lately begun to work for exhibitions in New York and some of the larger cities. The studies of children are done partly from little professional models and partly from her little friends. She works rapidly, catching a little at a time from the children while at play, as a rule. Her home is now in New York.