William Garl Browne, Jr. (American, 1823-1894), Pendant Portraits of Dr. Washington Caruthers Kerr and Emma C. Kerr, née Hall

Oil on canvas, the portrait of Dr. Kerr signed and inscribed to verso "Wm. Garl Browne, pinxit / Dec. 1881," and the portrait of Mrs. Kerr signed and inscribed "Wm. Garl Browne, pinxit / April 1882," both with later inscriptions identifying the sitter, presented in period gilt composition frames retaining original labels for A.P. McElroy of Washington, D.C.

Stretcher size 24 x 20 in.; Frame dimensions 31 x 28 in.

William Garl Browne, Jr. was an English-born American portrait painter who became one of the most significant artists working in 19th-century North Carolina. The son of landscape and genre painter William Garl Browne, Sr., he arrived in the United States as a young man and exhibited at the National Academy of Design by 1840. Browne gained national attention in 1847 for a series of portraits of General Zachary Taylor and his officers, painted at U.S. Army headquarters during the Mexican-American War and subsequently exhibited to acclaim in Washington, New York, and Baltimore.

Browne spent much of his career traveling throughout the South, with particularly strong ties to North Carolina, where he painted hundreds of prominent political, military, and civic figures. He maintained studios in Raleigh during the 1860s and 1870s and is also credited with designing North Carolina's 1861 state flag. Admired for the warmth, realism, and fluid handling of his portraits, Browne painted an estimated thousand works in North Carolina alone. His portraits are held by the North Carolina Museum of Art, North Carolina Supreme Court, Davidson College, Wake Forest University, and other institutions throughout the state.

Washington Caruthers Kerr (1827–1885) was a prominent North Carolina geologist, educator, and public servant. Born in Guilford County, he graduated with highest honors from the University of North Carolina in 1850 and later studied at Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School. After teaching chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at Davidson College, Kerr was appointed North Carolina State Geologist in 1864. His extensive fieldwork took him throughout the state, and his landmark Report of the Geological Survey of North Carolina documented its geology, topography, soils, and valuable mineral resources. He later joined the U.S. Geological Survey and was recognized as one of North Carolina's most important 19th-century scientists.

In 1853, Kerr married Emma Hall of Iredell County, North Carolina, who shared with him a family life shaped by his demanding teaching and scientific career. The couple had three children: William Hall Kerr, an inventor and manufacturer; Alice Spencer Kerr, a teacher who died at the age of twenty-one; and Lizzie Kerr, who married Professor George F. Atkinson of Chapel Hill. Kerr's declining health eventually led him to spend his summers in Asheville and winters in Florida; he died in Asheville in 1885 and was buried in Raleigh's Oakwood Cemetery.

Portrait of Dr. Kerr with 1 1/2 in. puncture to proper right of sitter's head, unidentified drips to surface, rubbing to wrapped edges of canvas from framing; the portrait of Mrs. Kerr is in good estate condition; both frames with loss and in fragile condition; dry surfaces to both paintings.