I have an old numbered print from Graves Gallery in San Francisco. It is called Humphreys house Hyde & Chestnut by Ivy F. Constance. It is a drawing of the house in watercolor I believe with the bay in the background and the street cars going by. I believe this used to be called the Clark house. Would anyone know how I could get more info. on the picture or artist? Thanks

-- Jane Drake (Drakejw@hotmail.com), October 10, 2003

Answers

Hi,

You are asking me to go back some 70 or 80 years in memory and that's not easy. But something I did remember right off as I saw the name of the house is that there was some kind of novel written a very long time ago based on that house. It had a biblical name. Let me think. Cain. Cain's Sister or Sister of Cain. Something like that. OK, now it's coming back to me a little bit. I believe the house was one of the very oldest homes in all of San Francisco as it was built right after the Gold Rush by that William Clark who sold the house to that Humphrey guy which is why it is called the Humphrey House.

The name of Ivy F. Constance also looks familiar but I just can't recall right now.

-- (Harrymurphy@*bigmailbox.net), November 02, 2003.

I have 6 water color paintings from Ivy F. Constance. All are of various San Francisco settings. At the bottom of the paintings under the frame is written "Copyright by Graves Gallery, San Francisco". I have been trying to find information about the artist of the Gallery. My grandmother bought the paintings and they were passed to me about twenty years ago. Any info on either the artist or Gallery would be appreciated. Thanks, David Ingram, Antioch,CA.

-- David Ingram (ingram4868@yahoo.com), January 30, 2004.