What can you say about David Ker? Flamboyant, loveable, generous, and possessed of an encyclopedic memory, David Ker was a larger-than-life figure. We at White Row are deeply saddened to hear of his passing at the age of just 74.
As well as being a fine art dealer, trading in works by amongst others, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Picasso, David happened to be a scion of the Ker family of Portavo in County Down.
This meant a lot to him. And no wonder. In their prime, the Kers were one of the wealthiest landowning families in the north of Ireland, owning at the height, Whitehead, Ballycarry, Ballynahinch and Downpatrick, the Copeland Islands, tens of thousands of acres of prime agricultural land, and through the borough of Downpatrick, their own seat in parliament.
Though he wore it lightly, like his father Dick, David was very conscious of, and intensely proud of and interested in this history, and as he was growing up, eagerly devoured every piece of family lore that came his way. And when, thanks to Derek Tughan, Peter Carr came to write up the family's history in the Wolfson Prize short-listed Portavo, David was a source beyond compare. The ironic phrase 'death by anecdote ' could well have been invented for him - a fact that he relished and indeed revelled in. He was far from being an uncritical source, and would relay each story with the level of scepticism he thought due, guiding the author as to what weight to attach to each without explicitly offering so much as a word of direction. Peter would like to record his sincere thanks to David for his many kindnesses over the years they worked together, and extend his sincere condolances to Twinks and the children.
Further reading
David looking back at his time with Dickinson's, art dealers