Geoffrey Humphries British, 1945

The greatest figurative painter living and working in Venice today

The renowned artist Geoffrey Humphries is the greatest figurative painter living and working in Venice today. He has established an international reputation as a master of painting, portraiture, watercolour and Expressionist fantasies revolving around the world of the cabaret.He is as famous for his bravura sense of colour as he is for the sensual nuance of his line, and his more recent forays into capturing Venice in watercolour have no equal - and indeed, bear comparison with Sargent and Turner.

 

He is one of the most gifted painters of his generation to turn his attention to portraiture, which he regards not as a chore or a necessary evil of the painter's trade, but as a means to probe the limits of human understanding, using paint to capture soul, psyche, and sensuality - in one go. The psychological acuity of his portraits has won him an ardent following, and his sitters range from locals of the Giudecca to rock stars and royalty.

 

No other painter of his generation uses colour as boldly, as passionately, and as brilliantly as Geoffrey Humphries. After over forty years in Venice, Geoffrey's palette is saturated with a light, a colour, a thrilling richness of sensation and tone and hue that is born of intimacy with the world of Bellini, Titian, Tiepolo and Veronese. But this saturation is coupled with an eye that is entirely his own - in his expressionist works we see a painter who recognizes the erotic pull of Secessionist Vienna as well as the depraved allure of the Berlin of Georg Grosz and Otto Dix.


Winner "Premio Alberoni", Venice


Selected Exhibitions

2017   The Osborne Studio Gallery, London
2015   Spencer Coleman Fine Art Ltd, Stamford
2008   Galleria IL Lago Montepiano, Tuscany
2008   Galleria Communale de' Bardi, Vernio
2007   Holly Snapp Gallery, Venice (to present)
2006  National Arts Club, Washington
2006   Galerie 40 Rother, Wiesbaden, Germany
2005   Fête Vénitienne", Beauchamps, Paris
2005   Manya Igel Fine Art, London
2004   Galerie Kunswekstatte Ralf Lake, Cloppenberg, Germany
2003   Manya Igel Fine Art, London
2003   The Royal Academy, London
2002   Manya Igel Fine Art, London
2002   Gallery Holly Snapp, Venice
2001   The Royal Portrait Society, London
2001   Gallery Holly Snapp, Venice