The William Humphreys Art Gallery, in Kimberley

Kimberley, Northern Cape

Kimberley is a city in South Africa, and the capital of the Northern Cape. It is located near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The town has considerable historical significance due its diamond mining past and siege during the Second Boer War...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, was opened in 1952 and named after its principal benefactor, William Benbow Humphreys (1889 - 1965).

Origins

In 1948 William Humphreys gave to the City of Kimberley a major part of his personal collection of sixteenth and seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish Old Masters, British and French paintings, antique furniture and other objets d'art. Significant South African works of art assembled by members of the Art Section of the Kimberley Athenaeum and The Max Greenberg Bequest were added to form the nucleus of the Gallery’s collection. The Humphreys Loan Collection and Timlin Collection on indefinite loan from De Beers

De Beers

De Beers is a family of companies that dominate the diamond, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea...

 Consolidated Mines Limited, augment it.

Growth

More recently the Meyer Collection of European and Oriental Porcelain and the Lawson

George Mervyn Lawson

The Venerable Fr George Merwyn Lawson served as Archdeacon of Kuruman, 1913–1941, in the Anglican Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman, and as Director of Missions for Griqualand West from 1903 until his death.-Ministry:...

Collection of Old Master Drawings and Prints have been acquired.

At present the William Humphreys Art Gallery concentrates on collecting South African works of art, and has built up an important art reference library.

Serving the community

Additional to its collecting and exhibiting functions, the William Humphreys Art Gallery serves as an educational and cultural centre, with an outreach programme taking exhibitions to rural towns in the Northern Cape.