William Mason Brown (c. 1828–1898) was an American artist.
Early life
Born in
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...
.
Education
Brown began his career as a portraitist, studying under Abel Buell Moore, Troy’s preferred portraitist.
Career
Brown painted
portrait
A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...
s,
landscapes, and ''
trompe-l'œil''
still life
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
s.
One of the better known of the
Hudson River School’s second generation, he was renowned for romantic landscapes and still lifes.
He was influenced by
Thomas Cole and others of the first generation of the Hudson River’s School, Brown was also heavily influenced by the
Pre-Raphaelite's.
In 1850, he moved to Newark, New Jersey, and began specializing in landscape painting.
In 1858, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, and switched to painting still lifes.
He 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 fin ...
for thirty-one years.
His paintings are to be found at the
Brooklyn Museum of Art, the
Cleveland Museum of Art, the
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...
, and the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
He usually signed his work as Wm M Brown.
Death
In 1898 Brown came down with heatstroke on August 26, and died at his home in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
on September 2.
Collections
His works are in the following collections:
* Brooklyn Museum of Art
Notes
References
External links
Artwork by William Mason Brown
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, william Mason
19th-century American painters
American male painters
American landscape painters
Hudson River School painters
Painters from New York (state)
Trompe-l'œil artists
1820s births
1898 deaths
19th-century American male artists