Artist Profile

Charles Henry Humphriss

• Lived:
• 1867-1934
• Worked:
• New York
• Style:
• Sculpture

• Charles Humphriss, born in England in 1867, specialized in sculpting the West. He settled in New York and eventually won the admiration and respect of his peers. He became a member of the National Sculptor Society and the Society of Independent Artists. Although he lived in New York and exhibited in the East, his imagination was sparked by trips to the West.

  Humphriss primarily depicted the worship rituals of the American Indian. To him portraying the peaceful and spiritual nature of the Indian character was more truthful. He did not see the Indian as a warrior and chose rather to sculpt them in poses showing their need for the Great Spirit's guidance and deliverance.

  His work was exhibited at the New York Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and in San Francisco, where he won an award at the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915. He died at age 65 in New York.