William Carroll Saunders (Alabama/Mississippi, 1817-1892), "Portrait of Two Sisters", c. 1855-60, oil on canvas, unsigned, 36 in. x 29 in., in a period cove-molded gilt-gessoed frame. William Carroll Saunders (1817-1892) was born in Huntsville, Alabama, but migrated with his family to Lowndes County, Mississippi, c. 1830. After declining an appointment to West Point c. 1832 he went to New York, and studied with Samuel F. B. Morse at the N. A. D. He was then in Italy, 1838-1842, honing his skills as a Romantic portraitist, prior to his return to Mobile, in 1842. At that time, one local writer exclaimed that "Saunders is lately from Italy...his paintings are the best I have seen in this country. His price is $150 per head!" Success as an itinerant in Alabama and Mississippi enabled Saunders to return to Italy in 1849, where he also served as US Consul in Rome until 1852. Again based in Mobile he resumed his work as a traveling portrait artist. This charming portrait of two young girls, from that time, has the deeply rich and warm coloration which defines Saunders' ante-bellum style. Following the Civil War Saunders again lived in Columbus where his wife ran the Boarding Department for the Mississippi State College for Women from 1870 to 1886. Saunders kept a studio on the campus and taught art before retiring into obscurity in Teague, Texas, where he lived with his son, and where his entire personal collection disappeared after his death. What little we know of Saunders is made all the more intriguing by the quality of his work. Like many itinerant artists of the old South he had the abilities of a "messenger of style", a painter whose grand ambitions in the European manner resulted in works of great charm. The history of painting in the South would be all the richer if additional discovery of his work is made. Estill Curtis Pennington