Brunette Portrait by Humbert Howard, 1969

Humbert Howard was born in Philadelphia in 1915. He began his studies at Howard University and transferred his senior year to the University of Pennsylvania. He later studied at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, and at the International Academy of Arts and Letters in Rome, where he was awarded an honorary degree. During the 1930s, Howard participated in the Philadelphia Work Progress Administration’s Art Project (WPA). While there, he painted a landscape that was one of the two selected for the exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. In 1940, Howard became Director of the Pyramid Club, a prominent African-American cultural center in Philadelphia. He was also a member of the Artists Equity Association, the Peale Club, the Philadelphia Art Alliance and the Pennsylvania Council on the Fine Arts. He also taught painting at the Allens Lane Art Center in Philadelphia. Howard’s work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution and Howard University.