Ethel Isadore Brown (1872–1944) was a painter, illustrator, and schoolteacher from Boston, best known for her 1898 painting ''Vision de Saint Jean à Patmos''.
Biography
Brown was born in Boston in 1872, one of three children of Edward P. Brown, a lawyer, and Emma Isadore (Clapp) Brown. Her older sister, Edith Blake Brown, was also an artist who taught at the
Cleveland School of Art
The Cleveland Institute of Art, previously Cleveland School of Art, is a private college focused on art and design and located in Cleveland, Ohio.
History
The college was founded in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women, at firs ...
. Ethel studied at the
Cowles Art School
Cowles Art School (Cowles School of Art) was established in 1883, in a studio building located at 145 Dartmouth Street in Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the largest art schools in the city and boasted an enrollment of several hundred until it ...
in Boston and with
Luc-Olivier Merson
Luc-Olivier Merson (21 May 1846 – 13 November 1920) was a French academic painter and illustrator also known for his postage stamp and currency designs.
Biography
Born Nicolas Luc-Olivier Merson in Paris, France, he grew up in an artist ...
in Paris. She painted religious scenes, travel scenes, and portraits. In the late 1890s she exhibited at the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...
, the
Society of American Artists
The Society of American Artists was an American artists group. It was formed in 1877 by artists who felt the National Academy of Design did not adequately meet their needs, and was too conservative.
The group began meeting in 1874 at the home of ...
, the
,
and at the ''
Salon du Champs de Mars'' in Paris.
From 1902 to 1906 she taught drawing, painting, and art history at the
Saint Agnes School for Girls in
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...
. After her sister died suddenly in 1907, she moved in with her brother-in-law and his two small children and remained there until he died in 1936. She died at her home in New Windsor, New York, in 1944.
Brown, her sister, and Elisabeth Parsons designed a stained glass window that was displayed in the Woman's Building at the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in Chicago. The feminist-themed piece, ''Massachusetts Mothering the Coming Woman of Liberty, Progress and Light'', was sponsored by the
Women's Educational and Industrial Union The Women's Educational and Industrial Union (1877–2006) in Boston, Massachusetts, was founded by physician Harriet Clisby for the advancement of women and to help women and children in the industrial city. By 1893, chapters of the WEIU were estab ...
. As of 2012 it was housed in the
Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows
The Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows was an exhibition that opened in February 2000 at Chicago’s Navy Pier entertainment complex. It permanently closed in October 2014. It was the first American museum dedicated solely to the art of stai ...
in Chicago.
The older woman on the right represents Massachusetts, nurturing and encouraging the liberated young woman of the future.
Brown's best known painting is ''Vision de Saint Jean à Patmos'' (1898), depicting
the Revelation of St. John the Divine on the Isle of
Patmos
Patmos ( el, Πάτμος, ) is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous as the location where John of Patmos received the visions found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written.
One of the northern ...
. It is remarkable for its inventive use of light and shadow. An example of American
Symbolist painting,
it is included in the collection of the
Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Brown was also an accomplished illustrator. Her drawings appeared in ''The Quarterly Illustrator'',
and she illustrated an 1893 edition of
William Black's ''A Princess of Thule''.
Image gallery
Image:Vision de Saint Jean à Patmos.jpg, ''Vision de Saint Jean à Patmos''
Image:Ethel Isadore Brown - View towards the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, 1900.jpg, ''View towards the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, 1900''
Image:A Princess of Thule page 4.jpg, ''A Princess of Thule'', p. 4.
Image:A Princess of Thule page 118.jpg, ''A Princess of Thule'', p. 118.
References
External links
''Vision de Saint Jean à Patmos'', 1898*
ttps://books.google.com/books?id=pqsUAAAAYAAJ ''A Princess of Thule'', 1893''Sabrina'', 1896
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Ethel Isadore
1872 births
1944 deaths
Painters from Boston
19th-century American painters
19th-century American women painters
American stained glass artists and manufacturers
American women illustrators
American illustrators
20th-century American painters
20th-century American women
20th-century women painters