Henry Wright Kerr RSA 1857-1936

Henry Kerr, whose death took place at 14 Scotland Street, on 18th February, was a native of Edinburgh, born 1857.

He was unmarried. He received his early education in Dundee. On receiving an appointment to a commercial firm in Leith, he studied Art at the classes of the Board of Manufactures and the Life School of the Academy.

His first exhibit was a water-colour in the Academy of 1882. , _ opt tel tn heat Elected an Associate in 1893 and Academician in 1909, Mr. Kerr was very assiduous in all the administrative Com mittees attached to membership, and he acted as Deputy President during 1923 and 1924, when his duties were by no means nominal.

His Diploma picture is a water-colour “Tranquil Age,” and the Academy also possesses another example bequeathed by Tom Scott, R.S.A. He was an active member of the Royal Scottish Society of  Water colours (1891), serving as Vice-President on several occasions. Most of Mr. Kerr’s work was in water-colour, which he handled with great skill in reticent colour and tonality, as in the very distinguished portrait of “ Mrs. Montgomerie Bell,” exhibited in the memorial group in last year’s Academy.

Many of his subjects were popularly humorous character studies of Scottish and Irish types, and he illustrated with great success Dean Ramsay’s “ Scottish Life and Character ” and several of Galt’s works, among others. Latterly he painted a number of presentation portraits in oil.

Transcribed from the 1936 RSA Annual Report