Peter Brown (active 1758–1799) was an English naturalist and natural history

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

of Danish ancestry who worked mainly in London.

Life and work

Brown was an associate of the great English naturalists Thomas Pennant and

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...

. Though primarily an illustrator, he wrote the scientific descriptions of some species, such as the brightly marked North American Arctiid moth ''

Haploa clymene ''Haploa clymene'', the Clymene moth, is a moth of the tiger moth subfamily - Arctiinae, tribe Arctiini. The species was first described by Peter Brown in 1776. It is found in eastern North America. Description The forewing is creamy yellow wi ...

''.BugGuide.net
''Haploa clymene''
Accessed 3 June 2007 Brown's illustrations included

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

, botanical subjects and insects.

Published works

Brown illustrated Emanuel Mendes da Costa's book, ''

Elements of Conchology Element or elements may refer to: Science * Chemical element, a pure substance of one type of atom * Heating element, a device that generates heat by electrical resistance * Orbital elements, parameters required to identify a specific orbit of o ...

, or An Introduction to the Knowledge of Shells'' (1771). In 1776, Brown published his own work, ''New illustrations of Zoology'', "containing fifty coloured plates of new, curious, and non-descript birds, with a few quadrupeds, reptiles and insects. Together with a short and scientific description of the same", published in London by White, and in French as "''Nouvelles illustrations de zoologie, contenant cinquante planches enluminées d'oiseaux curieux, et qui non etés jamais descrits, et quelques de quadrupedes, de reptiles et d'insectes, avec de courtes descriptions systematiques''". Brown contributed to Pennant's ''Arctic Zoology'' (1784–1785).

Exhibitions and distinctions

Brown exhibited at the

Free Society of Artists The Society of Artists of Great Britain was founded in London in May 1761 by an association of artists in order to provide a venue for the public exhibition of recent work by living artists, such as was having success in the long-established ...

and the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

from 1770 until 1791. He was appointed to be Botanical Painter to the Prince of Wales in 1783. He contributed botanical illustrations to private albums of Elizabeth Montagu, wife of George Montagu, 4th Duke of Manchester, implying that he was her drawing master and tutor. According to Christie's, his drawings "reveal an extremely high level of accomplishment".

References

Sources

* Blunt, W. (1951). ''The Art of Botanical Illustration.'' New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 151. * Whitehead, P.J.P. (1977) Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717–91) and the Conchology, or natural history of shells. ''Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Historical Series'', Vol.6 (1) pp 1–24. Attribution: *

External links