Kerr Eby

Kerr Eby was born the son of a Canadian Methodist missionary in Tokyo, but at the age of 3 years, the family returned to Canada. He later studied and worked in New York primarily as an illustrator. Eby spent his summers in Connecticut and moved there entirely in 1923, later moving briefly to Maine. Numerous prints depicted New England scenes and landscapes. Both World Wars influenced his works, often showing soldiers in action. During World War II, he worked as an art correspondent and was involved in the re-conquest of the Philippines by the US Army, where he contracted a tropical disease, from which he died in 1946.

Eby took up the subject of Polo a couple of times in the 1920s. In 1932, he produced an etching combined with aquatint with this title sized 21.9 x 39.5 cm. Surf Fishing was another etching, in the format 18.4 x 38.1 cm dated 1929. Eby’s two remaining etchings entered in the 1932 art competition showed hunting scenes from New England: New England Hunt: Riding to Covert (1931, 26 x 32 cm) and The Ford (1930/31, also 26 x 32 cm). Covert is a parish in Pennsylvania but also means thicket. In 1936 Eby participated again with the etching Goin’ Home (28 x 17 cm, sheet 39 x 26 cm), which was also created in 1928.