Matilda Browne (May 8, 1869 – November 3, 1947) was an American Impressionist artist noted for her flower paintings and her farm and cattle scenes. Born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Thomas Moran Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth too ...

. Matilda Browne was active in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

, New York City, and

Old Lyme, Connecticut Old Lyme is a coastal town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The main street of the town, Lyme Street, is a historic district with several homes once owned by sea captains. Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is located in Old Lyme and ther ...

, where she was affiliated with the art colony centered at the

Florence Griswold Florence Ann Griswold (December 25, 1850 – December 6, 1937) was a resident of Old Lyme, Connecticut, United States who became the nucleus of the "Old Lyme Art Colony" in the early 20th century. Her home has since been made into the Florence ...

home. She was the only woman at the Old Lyme Colony who was taken seriously as a painter by her male colleagues, and she was considered an important member of the Old Lyme group.

Biography

As a child in Newark, New Jersey, Browne lived next door to the artist

Thomas Moran Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth too ...

famous for his landscapes and particularly for his large paintings of Yellowstone National Park. He allowed his 9-year old neighbor into his studio to watch him work before inviting her to experiment with paint, brushes and canvas on her own. Her natural talent was obvious. He encouraged her to take additional art lessons, and by age 12 one of her paintings of flowers was accepted into an exhibition 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 fin ...

in New York. She soon became interested in painting farm animals and traveled with her mother to Europe in 1889 to study with animal painters in France and the Netherlands. Browne studied under a series of accomplished tutors —

Eleanor Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introd ...

and Kate Greatorex (1854–1917, 1851–1913), Frederick Freer (1849–1908), Charles Melville Dewey (1849–1937),

Julien Dupré Julien Dupré (, March 18, 1851 – April, 1910) was a French painter. He was born in Paris on March 18, 1851 to Jean Dupré (a jeweler) and Pauline Bouillié. It was expected that he enter the family business, and to that end Dupré began wo ...

(1851–1910) in Barbizon, and Henry Bisbing (1849–1933) in the Netherlands. After returning from Europe in the early 1890s, Browne returned to New York and began to exhibit in the metropolitan area. Most significantly, given her fondness for animal painting, she studied with Carleton Wiggins (1848–1932), a well known landscape and cattle painter. Browne exhibited her work at the

Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to ...

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 (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

in Chicago, Illinois. She worked in Greenwich, Connecticut, working at

Cos Cob, Connecticut Cos Cob is a neighborhood and census-designated place in the town of Greenwich, Connecticut. It is located on the Connecticut shoreline in southern Fairfield County. It had a population of 6,770 at the 2010 census. Cos Cob is located on the west ...

, in the late 1890s, and on and off throughout her career; she worked in

, from 1905 to 1906 and periodically from 1911 to 1924. Wiggins may have introduced her to the Florence Griswold boardinghouse in Old Lyme. Browne later rented a house on Lyme Street in the center of the village, believed to be shown in the background of ''In the Garden'' (1915). File:Matilda Browne Peonies 1907.jpg, ''Peonies'', 1907 File:Matilda Browne - In the Garden 1915.jpg , ''In the Garden'', 1915 File:Child in Pink.jpg, Young girl in pink party gown, n.d. In 1905, when she first visited Old Lyme at the age of 36, she had already won a number of awards and established a critical reputation. The other artists at the Griswold boardinghouse asked Matilda Browne to paint on a door and she contributed a pair of panels on the door leading to Miss Florence’s bedroom titled ''Bucolic Landscape'', forming a scene of calves grazing beneath a tree. She was also the only woman to be included in ''The Fox Chase'' mural about the art colony that

Henry Rankin Poore Henry Rankin Poore (1859–1940), often Henry R. Poore, was an American painter and illustrator, known for incorporating human and animal figures into his landscape and genre paintings. He was also a lecturer and critic, and a prolific author on ...

was painting over the dining room fireplace. These were extraordinary honors, since this all-male colony generally looked down on female artists – as most obviously illustrated by

Willard Metcalf Willard Leroy Metcalf (July 1, 1858March 9, 1925) was an American painter born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and later attended Académie Julian, Paris. After early figure-painting and ill ...

who painted one young woman art student unsympathetically as ''Poor Little Bloticelli'' (1907). In 1918 Matilda Browne became the second wife of Frederick Van Wyck. She and her husband lived at his home on 142 E. 18th St, Manhattan, New York. In 1932 her illustrations were published in her husband’s book, ''Recollections of an Old New Yorker.'' After Frederick Van Wyck's death on February 16, 1936, Matilda Browne returned to Greenwich to live. Matilda Browne died in

, on November 3, 1947, at the age of 78.

Awards

* Dodge Prize (National Academy of Design, 1889) * Third

Hallgarten Prize The Julius Hallgarten Prizes (defunct) were a trio of prestigious art prizes awarded by 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 Samue ...

(National Academy of Design, 1901) * Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts Award (1918, 1919) * Greenwich Art Association (prize, 1929)

References

External links

Florence Griswold Museum: Matilda Browne

{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Matilta 1869 births 1947 deaths American Impressionist painters 20th-century American painters Painters from Newark, New Jersey 19th-century American women painters 19th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters