Enoch Lloyd Branson

From Pathways History and Genealogical Journal Volume 11 Number 3

Enoch Lloyd Branson was born in Union County, Tennessee on August 8, 1853 to Enoch Branson (ca 1821) and Altamira Gentry (ca 1824), daughter of Isaac Gentry (1779-1866) and Elizabeth Lewis (1779-1880). Lloyd's grandparents were David Branson (November 4, 1781 NC-May 28, 1830) and Susannah Bolton (Sep 10, 1779 VA). His maternal grandparents were Thomas Bolton, born in Virginia, and Jemimah Hammock.

David Branson, son of Absolom Branson, was born ca 1740. He married Jemimah Lorton in Marlborough, Maryland. They moved to Virginia and later to Buncombe County, North Carolina. In 1818 David Branson moved from Cracker's Neck Valley in North Carolina to Grainger County (now Union), Tennessee. David Branson died on May 28, 1830 and was buried in the Carr Cemetery in Maynardville.

Enoch Branson, father of Lloyd, was a member of the commission appointed to lay off Union County in the 1850s, and was later appointed revenue commissioner for District 6. His children were Susannah, Rebecca, Samuel D. , Horace, Enoch Lloyd, and Oliver M. Branson.

Dr. John M. Boyd of Knoxville, a family physician and a leader in the community, made a trip to Union County and was surprised when he saw a rough sketch of General Grant done by young Lloyd Branson on a cigar box. He recognized the potential displayed by Branson in his examination of other works done with crude brushes made of animal hair and Y'homemade" paints manufactured from berries, roots, bark and clay. He invited Branson to his office where they discussed carving in wood for the production of photographs. The art of engraving for photographs had not been perfected at that time.

Following the meeting with Branson, Dr. Boyd contacted Branson's parents and convinced them to send Lloyd from the Union County farm to Knoxville where the advantages were greater in developing his abilities as an artist. Dr. Boyd said the young man had demonstrated he could do art work as well as the best artists in many large cities across the country. Branson entered the University of Tennessee and at seventeen his paintings attracted attention at the East Tennessee Division Fair. At the university he made remarkable progress and maintained a reputation described by Dr. Boyd as a contestant for the position of the world's greatest artist.

In 1873, Branson went to study at the National Academy of Design in New York. While there, he won a first prize that enabled him to go to Europe where he studied the works done by many of the early masters. He was back in Knoxville in 1876,and painted rare works much at variance with the almost primitive process that prevailed at that time.

Branson was commissioned by the United States Government to paint scenes for exhibit at the Paris exposition. Encouraged by Dr. Boyd, he embarked on a second tour of Europe where he developed into one of America's most famous and talented artist. Dr. Boyd was well pleased and classed Branson as a natural born artist.

From 1885 to 1903, Branson established a partnership with photographer Frank McCray in McCray and Branson. Their studio was located on the second floor of a three-story, Queen-Anne styled building next to the Burwell Building, Knoxville's pioneer skyscraper, on South Gay Street. The crest boldly inscribed with the partners' names, served as the focal point for the art community. They sold photographs, colored photographs, oil and crayon portraits, landscape, illustrated souvenirs, and produced paintings of subjects of everyday life treated realistically. Branson taught students in painting and clay modeling. Such graduates as Mrs. Walter Van Gilder, Mrs. James R. McDowell, Mrs. James D. Hoskins, and William Cary Ross credited their teacher with being a primary influence upon their long careers as painters. A fire of undetermined origin in the studio destroyed a number of paintings and portraits done by Branson.

Branson was the first artist exposed to European influences and was a discussant at the Nicholson Art League, the Knoxville art circle. He spent some time in Cincinnati in the 1920s and a few weeks each year in Hot Springs, North Carolina.

Branson painted many Negro folk pictures that attracted attention in the South, and some of them were subjects of comment throughout the English-speaking world. Among them were the pictures given the titles: "Spirited Inquiry," "She Was Bred In Old Kentucky," "All Coons Look Alike To Me," "U. S. Mail," and the last one in the Negro group was entitled: "Ain't Gwine To Be No Rine." These pictures were exhibited in the Cotton States and at the International Exposition held in Atlanta in 1895.

Other subjects of his paintings were political figures, college presidents, private citizens, and historical scenes. Among other places, his works hang at the Lawson-McGhee Library in Knoxville. Seven of his portraits hang in the Special Collections Library, and several others can be seen in the Andy Holt Tower on the University of Tennessee Campus. The Special Collections Paintings are of Sarah Southerland Boyd, Horace Maynard, Charles Coffin, John Bell, J.G.M.Ramsey, James Robertson, and Isaac Shelby. Branson exhibited regionally and won the gold medal at the Applichian Exposition for "Hauling Marble" in 1910. This painting graces the office of the University of Tennessee president. A portrait of Horace Maynard, (See The Horace Maynard Article) presented to Horace Maynard High School in Union County by Maynard's son in 1922, is displayed in the school library.

When Knoxville's Imperial Hotel, located on the site of Hotel Farragut, was destroyed by fire, one of Branson' s greatest productions was destroyed also. It was an oil painting of the "Battle of King's Mountain." The painting was of a tragic scene of battle beneath a golden sunset. Branson never reproduced the lost painting. The "Battle of King's Mountain" had been viewed by the late Admiral George Dewey, Theodore Roosevelt and by scores of famous guests of the Imperial Hotel. The artist was deeply interested in Tennessee history and produced portraits of Tennessee statesmen as well as executing several large canvases with regional themes: "United States Barracks At Knoxville," 1793, "Gathering Of The Overmuntain Men At Sycamore Shoals," 1780, and of course the ill fated "Battle Of King's Mountain."

The National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Insititute, in Washington, D. C. in a 1990 inventory of American paintings before 1914, twenty-eight works by Branson are listed. Thirteen of the paintings are owned by the institute. The remaining fifteen are owned by public art galleries and private individuals across the country.

 A collection of Branson' s paintings was published in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly, "Portrait Painting in Tennessee," compiled by the East Tennessee Historical Society in 1987. This publication included portraits of Mary Annis Miller, 1895-96, Robert James McKenney, 1887, Adelia A. Lutz, 1878, and perhaps one of the artist's last great canvases, that of Sgt. Alvin C. York, World War I Congressional Medal of Honor Winner from Fentress County, Tennessee, in 1924.

Those portraits published in the historical quarterly were exhibited at the East Tennessee Historical Center in Knoxville September 15 - November 11, 1988.

Lloyd Branson died of a heart attack at age seventy-two at his home on Branson Avenue at 9 p.m on June 13, 1925. In announcing the death of Lloyd Branson the Knoxville News-Sentinel declared, "the city of Knoxville lost one of her most widely known citizens and most talented artists." His funeral was held on Sunday with burial in Old Gray Cemetery in Knoxville.

Branson's tombstone inscription reads: "The Tennessee artist whose genius created the picture "Sycamore Shoals" and by it immortalized the turning point that meant lasting victory in the American Revolution 1780." One is again reminded of Horace Maynard's remarks in a speech at the unveiling of a statute of Admiral Farragut in Washington on April 25, 1881 when he said, "Great men--are the greatest of God's earthly things. They are peculiar riches first of their own land; then of the age in which they lived; lastly of the race. It is well then, that their lives be cherished and their noble deeds be recorded in the alcoves of the library, by inscription for the public eye, in monumental bronz and enduring gantite. . . ." Photograph courtesy David Babelay.

This article was compiled from newspaper accounts courtesy McClung Historical Collection, Knoxville -WGT

For more information on this article or any article or publication of the Union County Historical Society please write them at:

Union County Historical Society
P.O. Box 95
Maynardville, TN 37807

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