Henry Harris Brown

Henry Harris Brown RP (29 December 1864 – 12 July 1948) was an English artist best known for his portraits of English clergy, aristocrats and American and Canadian industrialists.

Early life

Brown was born on 29 December 1864 in Northampton, England. He was the son of Lily and Henry Brown. His brother was Arthur Barrie Brown.

Career

Brown, who is sometimes credited as H. Harris Brown, studied at the Académie Julian in Paris under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury, and exhibited at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy from 1888. Brown was a contemporary of the Scottish painter John Henry Lorimer, and showed alongside John Singer Sargent, George Henry, Hugh Glazebrook, Sir George Reid.

Today, his works appear in the university collections of Queen's University Belfast, Exeter College, Oxford, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Trinity College, Cambridge, Christ Church, Oxford. They also appear in several prominent properties, including Thirlestane Castle, Guildhall, Bath, National Gallery of Ireland, Museo Horne (Brown donated his 1908 painting of Herbert Horne to the museum in 1933), and at National Trust properties, including Castle Ward.

Exhibitions In 1919, Knoedler Galleries on Fifth Avenue in New York City exhibited a number of his portraits, including those of Charles H. Sabin, Geraldine Miller Graham, Colonel Bishop and Mrs. William A. Slater, Jr. of Washington ( Madeleine Allen of New York). At the time, The Studio described Brown's works to be "great feats of draughtsmanship, rich colouring, excellent pose and a character expressed in hands out of the ordinary. He is intensely interested not only in the actual hand, but in obtaining some attractive poses of the hands, making a beautiful picture in themselves."

In April 1922, an exhibition of fourteen portraits by Brown, thirteen of prominent men of Canada and one New York physician who was born in Nova Scotia, was held at the Fearon Galleries in New York City. Brown completed the portraits in Canada over thirty months, devoting more than a month to each individual. The sittings were held either at the subject's homes or in their offices. Among his portraits was of Canadian industrialist, Adam Brown, then 96 years old. (The exhibited portraits were of Dr.) George David Stewart, President of the New York Academy of Medicine, Whitney Warren Jr. (son of architect Whitney Warren), W. Emlen Roosevelt (cousin of Theodore Roosevelt), Robert Garden (father of Miss Mary Garden), Edith O'Shaughnessy (wife of Nelson O'Shaughnessy, former U.S. Secretary to Embassy in Mexico during the Wilson administration), and John Elderkin.

Portrait subjects

Clergy The Right Rev. Edward Talbot The Right Rev. William Alexander The Right Rev. Mandell Creighton The Rev. William Jackson The Rev. Henry George Woods The Hon. Edward Lyttelton, D.D.

Aristocrats George Askwith, 1st Baron Askwith Sir William MacCormac, 1st Baronet Henry Ward, 5th Viscount Bangor Ian Maitland, 15th Earl of Lauderdale Grace Denison, Countess of Londesborough ( Lady Grace Fane) Ethel Meysey-Thompson, Lady Knaresborough (née Ethel Adeline Pottinger)

Others Richard B. Angus Grenville Lindall Winthrop Charles Foxcroft Violet Jacob ( Violet Augusta Mary Frederica Kennedy-Erskine) Amelia Jackson

Gallery

Personal life

Brown died on 12 July 1948 at Princess Beatrice Hospital in London. At the time, he was living at The Vale, Chelsea, and was buried at St Luke's Churchyard at Duston, Northamptonshire, England.