Woman in the Surf by Estelle Muriel Kerr

Estelle Muriel Kerr was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1879. In Toronto she studied with Mary Ella Dignam and Laura Muntz Lyall. She studied at The New York Art Students League (NYASL) for about two years from 1901. She also spent two years at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. During the summers she sketched in Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Around 1913 Kerr shared a studio in Toronto with Dorothy Stevens. In World War I (1914-1918) she drove an ambulance in France. She became well known as an art critic and a painter of children, and also painted landscapes and figure studies. She also was an art journalist, and a critic, as well as illustrating and writing several books. Kerr was among the founding members of the Graphics Art Club and the Heliconian Club. Kerr died in 1971.