Humphrey All
Sometimes when we reflect on childhood memories, the feeling is one of a dream sequence. It becomes hard to separate what actually happened – and when – with how our mind strings those early memories together. This remarkable little painting by Polly Nicholl prompted me to think about some very early memories, and the summertime games my older siblings would play while I was “in bed” in the early 1960s.
The truth is, I was not “in bed” – I have distinct memories of climbing out of my crib to go stand by the window and watch my 5 siblings run around the yard in the summer dusk. I suspect I was around 2, living in the house my parents built on Barren Circle in Chappaqua, NY. My brothers and sisters would have been 10, 9, 7, 5 and four, and they played a game we called “Humphrey All”. The actual game is “Home Free All” – a version of tag where anyone who is “caught” can be freed by a player reaching the home base and yelling “home free all”. In my family’s case, we yelled “Humphrey All”. For obvious reasons but to be clear, my family name was Humphrey.
Our home was on a dead end circle, and there were only a few houses built at the time. Our house backed up to a very large “rock”, making no backyard but plenty of side yard and lots of front yard including the empty paved circle. On the other side of that “rock” was a marshy area with a small lake, though not accessible to our home, nor was I actually aware of it at the time. What I do recall are large turtles in the yard, merged into the evening games in my memory. I have no idea if this actually happened, but in all likelihood the turtles were being disturbed from their habitat as houses were being built, and they began to wander. These were not “pick up and look at” turtles – more “small boulder” sized. Why I recall them is unclear, but my memory has connected them to the evening games I watched from my bedroom window.
This image prompted these memories as we also had an old fashioned slide and metal swing set in our yard, and many an afternoon was spent playing on them. As the youngest of 4 girls, I was often watched over by my older sisters, and this image made me think of the 4 of us. Highly unlikely I was wearing a dress – or a red ribbon in my hair – but the ages of the girls is so much like the 4 of us that it seemed it depicted us.
The work was done in 1971, or at least framed in California at that time. Polly Nicoll was German, moving to this country “prior to WWII” the note on the back says. I was not able to find anything online about her, and am grateful for the note as it tells me she attended USC, studied writing, and then turned to art. Her note continues:
“Her main interest is the figure, though she finds some aspects of nature equally expressive in terms of form and space. She tends to search for the permanent rather than the transient and paints in a variety of styles because she feels ‘Monday’s works is not Friday’s, yet both are valid.’”
The work is a painting, and is very clever. Nicoll used the golden matt, also used in the framing, and inked over it to sketch out the image. The bows in the girls’ hair are added with dots of paint. Her style is very midcentury modern, and is remarkably expressive for such minimal use of paint. Somehow, with only a few lines, we can sense the swings moving, the girls eyeing their little sister, and the young red bowed girl sitting smugly on her swing. Today is Monday, I am rather busy these days doing all sorts of things, but come Friday, I am sure I will again turn to introspective moments as I enjoy lovely vintage artwork.