John George Brown was born in 1831 in England and immigrated to America in 1853. While in England he studied under William B. Scott and continuing his education at the National Academy of Design in NYC. Brown was one of the most successful genre painters of the late 19th century. He worked as a glassblower in Brooklyn and proceeded to open a studio in 1860, launching his artistic career with a painting entitled "His First Cigar". His paintings of cheery street urchins, vendors and shoeshine boys were quite popular with wealthy collectors. However, Brown falsified his subjects as always happy and healthy with just a touch of grime for cosmetics. These scenes were really below his artistic ability but he did not want to cause social alarm among patrons. Many of Brown's works were reproduced in lithography and widely distributed with packaged teas. The royalties earned from one litho were $25,000. Brown's financial success allowed for him to paint country landscapes for pleasure. He exhibited much of his work at the National Academy of Design from 1858-1900, where he also taught for many years.

Biography courtesy of The Caldwell Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/caldwell

John George Brown's sentimentalized portrayals of street urchins, reproduced by the thousands, made him the richest and most celebrated genre painter in turn of the century America. Born in Durham, England in 1831, Brown studied art in England and Scotland before coming to America in 1853. He was a glassblower in Brooklyn, and a student at the National Academy of Design in New York City. He opened a studio there in 1860, when his painting, His First Cigar, launched his national reputation. Brown exploited his considerable talent to supply the Victorian taste for his specialty adept (copyrighted) pictures of young white shoeshiners, vendors and servants. From the 1860s on, his reputation as "the bootblack Raphael" never flagged. Toward the end of his life, his yearly income averaged $40,000. Originals sold for $500 to $700. Royalties from just one lithograph, distributed with packaged tea, totaled $25,000. Though he claimed the successful formula of "contemporary truth" for his pictures, none gave doting collectors or wealthy patrons cause for social alarm. He falsified his subjects, who were in reality minority immigrants whose lives were often wretched struggles for survival. Brown's street juveniles are invariably cheerful, spunky tykes never sick, sad, emaciated, hungry or noticeably foreign. Their ragged clothing is picturesque, their grime cosmetic. They are undeniably appealing. Even the most uneven of Brown's popularized works show painterly skill and sound training. Brown died in 1913 in New York City.
MEMBERSHIPS:
National Academy of Design
American Water Color Society
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D.C
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore
G.W.V. Smith Art Gallery, Springfield, Massachusetts

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton

J. G. Brown was one of America's most beloved genre painters, whose picturesque street urchins signify antebellum taste and culture. Born in Durham, England, Brown imported a Dickensian eye for youthful energy and urban bustle. His spirited accounts of New York's newspaper vendors and shoe-shine boys reached a mass public through lithographic reproductions, earning a lasting place in the American consciousness. Brown won prizes from the Paris Exposition of 1889 and the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition of 1901, and was deeply involved in the New York art world. He was one of the most influential teachers of the National Academy of Design, acted as the academy's vice-president, and served as the president of the American Watercolor Society and the Artists Fund Society. The Robert Hull Fleming Museum held a retrospective of his life and career in 1975. The George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum mounted a major exhibition of his work in 1989, which traveled to the National Academy of Design and the Joslyn Art Museum. His paintings are also in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection in Madrid.

Biography courtesy of Questroyal Fine Art LLC, www.antiquesandfineart.com/questroyal