Joseph Brown

Joseph Brown AO OBE (born Josef Braun; 1918 – 24 August 2009) was a Polish-born Australian art collector, art dealer, artist, and philanthropist. In 2004, he donated over 150 works to the National Gallery of Victoria in what was then the largest single gift of artworks to an Australian public institution. Brown was also known for his own artwork and for operating the Joseph Brown Gallery in Melbourne from 1967.

Early life and education Brown was born Josef Braun in Łódź, Poland in 1918, the seventh of eight children in a middle-class Jewish family. His mother died shortly before the family's departure from Poland. The family, who had worked in the hosiery industry in Łódź, settled in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton. Notable gifts included Eugène von Guérard's Ferntree Gully in the Dandenong Ranges to the National Gallery of Australia—a painting that had been proposed in 1857 as the beginning of a national gallery. At the time, this was described as the most generous single gift of works of art ever made to a public gallery in Australia. The book was reprinted in 1980 with an expanded edition containing 205 illustrations, and a third edition published in 1989 featured 407 illustrations. He received honorary doctorates from Monash University (1981), the University of Melbourne (1986), and La Trobe University (1990) in recognition of his substantial contributions to Australian art history.

Exhibitions and legacy In 1999, the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne held a retrospective exhibition titled Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE: a creative life; sixty five years a private artist, showcasing his work from 1934 to 1999. Major exhibitions of the Joseph Brown Collection were held at the National Gallery of Victoria (October–December 1980) and the Art Gallery of New South Wales (May–June 1989). Examples of Brown's own artwork are held in regional art collections including Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Geelong Art Gallery, Cairns Regional Art Gallery, Carrick Hill Gallery, and Newcastle Region Art Gallery.

Brown died on 24 August 2009 at the age of 91. The National Gallery of Victoria paid tribute to him as one of its greatest philanthropists, with Director Gerard Vaughan describing his contribution to the cultural life of Australia as immeasurable. At the time of his 2004 gift, Brown had stated: "I am often very surprised when some people say they have not been to the National Gallery of Victoria. I always stress to them, this is their property. It's their Gallery, they should feel it is theirs. It's not mine, it's not Gerard Vaughan's, it belongs to the people. I would like all Victorians to feel [they own] this immense Collection."