John George Brown
Born	November 11, 1831 Durham, England, U.K.
Died	February 8, 1913(1913-02-08) (aged 81) New York City, New York, U.S.
Style	Genre art

John George Brown (November 11, 1831 – February 8, 1913) was aBritish citizen and anAmericanpainter who specialized ingenre scenes.

John George Brown was born inDurham, England on November 11, 1831. His parents apprenticed him to the career ofglass worker at the age of fourteen in an attempt to dissuade him from pursuing painting.^[1] He studied nights at the School of Design inNewcastle-on-Tyne while working as a glass cutter there between 1849 and 1852 and evenings at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh while working at the Holyrood Glass Works between 1852 and 1853.^[2] After moving toNew York City in 1853, he studied withThomas Seir Cummings at theNational Academy of Design where he was elected a NationalAcademician in 1861. Brown was the Academy's vice-president from 1899 to 1904.^[3]

Around 1855, he worked for the owner of the Brooklyn Glass Company as aglassblower, and later married the daughter of his employer. His father-in-law encouraged his artistic abilities, supporting him financially, letting Brown pursue painting full-time.^[1] He established a studio in 1860 and, in 1866, he became one of the charter members of the Water-Color Society, of which he was president from 1887 to 1904.^[4] Brown became famous for his idealized depictions of street urchins in New York (bootblacks, street musicians, posy sellers,newsboys, etc.).^[5]

HisPassing Show (Paris, Salon, 1877) andStreet Boys at Play (Paris Exhibition, 1900) are good examples of his popular talent.^[4] Brown's art is best characterized as British genre paintings adapted to American subjects. Essentially literary, Brown's paintings are executed with precise detail, but poor in color, and more popular with the general public than with connoisseurs. His paintings were quite popular with wealthy collectors. Many of Brown's paintings were reproduced as lithographs and widely distributed with packaged teas. He also painted some landscapes, just for pleasure.

He died at his home in New York City on February 8, 1913.^[6]

• Wishing to more faithfully capture his subjects as they appeared in real life, Brown once said, "Theywill change their dress, as though to show the extent of their wardrobe. Being cautioned expressly on Saturday, and told to return in the same fustian jacket your boy will appear on Monday morning, if he appears at all, in a red woolen shirt. And they are constantly having their hair trimmed--perfect dandies!"^[5]
• Brown was trying to capture the spirit of the street children as people who "pull themselves up by their bootstraps."^[5]
• Many years later, Brown claimed that most of the street children he painted had grown to become successful businessmen.^[5]
• Brown claimed to bobbies, "I do not paint poor boys solely because the public likes such pictures and pays me for them, but because I love the boys myself, for I, too, was once a poor lad like them."

• 
  Only A Nickel, Joe, 1906. Private collection.
• 
  The Cider Mill, 1880,Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
• 
  Three for Five, 1890,Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama
• 
  Camp in Vermont, 1879
• 
  Meditation, 1881
• 
  Street Gallantry, 1880

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905).New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.{{cite encyclopedia}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)

Media related toJohn George Brown at Wikimedia Commons

• John George Brown at MuseumSyndicate
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• John George Brown atFind a Grave

• 1831 births
• 1913 deaths
• Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery
• 19th-century American painters
• Painters from New York City
• American male painters
• British emigrants to the United States
• 20th-century American painters
• 19th-century American male artists
• 20th-century American male artists

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