William Balfour Ker
William Balfour Ker | |
---|---|
painter, artist | |
Spouse(s) | Mary Ellen Sigsbee |
Relatives | Tuesday Weld (granddaughter) |
] |
William Balfour Ker (July 25, 1877 – October 20, 1918) also known simply as Balfour Ker, and sometimes written Balfour-Ker
Early life
William Balfour Ker was born in
Career
Ker painted covers for Life magazine, including Thanksgiving and Christmas issues. Some of his illustrations for Life were published as postcards by the Detroit Publishing Company.[10]
His political commitment to socialism was often reflected in his art.[3] His most notable, widely printed and reproduced piece[12] From the Depths was originally published in the 1906 book The Silent War by John Ames Mitchell.[2] The illustration depicts:
a lavish social event in a large ballroom attended by the well-to-do; the party is disrupted when a fist erupts through the floor, beneath which are the struggling masses of the less fortunate who provide the foundation support on which the wealthy rest.[11]
Copies also circulated under the title The Hand of Fate,
Ker clearly intended this painting to inflame class divisions between productive workers and the wealthy upper class, as represented by strong but exploited workers trapped beneath the floor and well-to-do dancers at a society ball... That such a work could be painted, published, and widely discussed suggests that class divisions in the Progressive Era were real and widespread.[3]
During the
Personal life
Ker was married twice. His first marriage was to
Ker's second wife was Josephine Reeder Phillips, an American model,[3] whom he married in England in 1914.[5] They lived there and in France, before returning to the United States.[5] They had four children, some before they were married.[5] These included three sons and a daughter, Yosene Balfour Ker, who was a model featured in several paintings by the artist John Sloan,[16][17] and whose own daughter is actress Tuesday Weld (born Susan Ker Weld).[18][19]
Ker died on October 20, 1918,[20] in New York City,[1] at the age of 41. Phillips died within a few years, leaving their four children, ranging in age from four to ten years, as orphans.[5] On discovering that they were in the care of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Newark, New Jersey, Alexander Graham Bell wrote to the society, and to John Adams Kingsbury in April 1922, offering assistance.[5][21] Ker is buried at Rock Creek Cemetery.[citation needed]
Works illustrated
Books illustrated by Ker include:
- Lanier, Henry Wysham (1904). The Romance of Piscator. Henry Holt and Company.
- Mitchell, John Ames (1906). The Silent War. Life Publishing Company.
- Mitchell, John Ames (1910). Dr Thorne's Idea. Life Publishing Company.
- White, Bouck (1913). The Call of the Carpenter. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company.
Notes
- ^ Some modern sources such as the Union List of Artist Names list his birth place as Dunville, Newfoundland and Labrador,[1] yet Ker himself stated in a 1911 interview: "I was born in an Imperial Bank of Canada at Dunville, [sic] Ontario, July 25, 1877."[4]
References
- ^ a b c "ULAN Full Record Display". Getty Research. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ a b Bremner, Robert H. (1956). From the Depths: The Discovery of Poverty in the United States. New York University Press. pp. 193–194.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hayne, Carolyn (April 2004). "William Balfour Ker". Ask Art. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- ^ a b c "Life's Family Album". Life. Vol. 58, no. 1522. December 28, 1911. p. 1182.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Alexander Graham Bell Autograph – Bell poignantly seeks help for children, 1922". History in Ink. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ a b "Balfour Ker married". The Yakima Herald. August 17, 1899. p. 7.
- ^ Lynx, David; Wilbur, Yvonne (November 30, 2009). "Moxee Company, The (Yakima County)". HistoryLink.
- ^ "Local and Commercial". The Yakima Herald. February 20, 1896. p. 1.
- ^ "Snap shots at Yakima". The Yakima Herald. December 3, 1896. p. 3.
- ^ Broyles, Susannah (September 20, 2011). "The Age of Innocence?". Museum of the City of New York. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ a b "From the depths / Wm. Balfour-Ker". Library of Congress. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ King's College, London. May 9, 2013. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ Ker, William Balfour (1917). "Buy United States government war savings stamps Your money back with interest from the United States Treasury /". Library of Congress. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ a b "Ker, William Balfour". Schoonover Studios. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ a b c "Anton Otto Fischer". Illustration History. Norman Rockwell Museum. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ISBN 9780805052213.
- ISBN 978-0-87413-439-1.
- ^ "Profile of Lathrop M. Weld". The New York Times. June 7, 1947.
- ^ "Yosene Ker a Bride; Wed to Lathrop M. Weld in Municipal Marriage Chapel". The New York Times. January 28, 1934.
- ^ "Balfour Ker". Greenwich Village quill v.3:6. November 1918. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ Bell, Alexander Graham (April 18, 1922), "the children of Balf Ker", Letter to John Adams Kingsbury, retrieved June 21, 2019