A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF
suggested by his visit to Qravesend to see his old
friend Woolner off to Australia. In 1865 he com-
pleted his noble painting called ' Work,' which is
now in the Manchester Art Gallery, and then it was
that he decided on having for the first time a show
of his finished productions. It was held in Picca-
dilly, and owing to faults of mismanagement
failed to pay its expenses, but it made the artist
known, and gathered around him many who, in
lateryears, became his friends and constant patrons.
Carlyle and Browning were amongst the most
enthusiastic of his admirers at that time. The
years which followed were very full of sound work.
' Romeo and Juliet,' 'English Autumn Afternoons,'
'Cromwell on his Farm,' 'Elijah and the Widow's
Son,' ' Cordeha and Lear,' ' Eliud and Eglon,'
' Wickliffe on his Trial,' and many others might
be quoted to show what fine paintings were pro-
duced at that time ; and then in 1878 arrived the
commission for the greatest work of liis life, the
series of mural paintings for the Town Hall of
Manchester, upon which he was at work when he
died. Notable amongst this splendid series are the
panels which depict the Expulsion of the Danes,
the Romans building the City, and John Dalton
experimenting with marsh-gas. One of his latest
works was the designing of the lovely Irish cross of
marble which was placed over the grave of Rossetti
at Birchington-on-Sea, and also the alto-relievo
which was erected on the Thames Embankment to
the memory of the same talented painter. He him-
self died in October 1893. " As a dramatic painter
he has had few equals in this country, just as for
every personal quality which makes a man beloved
of his friends he had no superior." His special
qualities have been well described by a recent
writer as " unsurpassable invention and mastery of
composition, a fine sense of style, a vivid appreci-
ation of, and executive powerover, pure colour." He
had, it must be confessed, occasionally a "strange
leaning towards ugliness of form or attitude and
emphasis of expression which at times almost
amounted to caricature," but he was a man of
the liighest ideals, of an opulent colour sense, of
the noblest intention, and gifted with wonderful
skill. His friends described him as "gentle,
modest, genial, and guileless, almost to the point of
simplicity," although he could, if aroused, be force-
ful, stern, and inflexible, but was never resentful
or vindictive. He was one of the very last of the
historical painters of England, a man of great in-
vention, brilliant execution, and largeness of con-
ception, and his influence upon all those who
immediately followed him it is impossible to over-
rate. To him we really owe the startling ch:inge
which passed over English art, its recrudescence,
and its revival. Millais could not have been but for
Brown ; Rossetti learned from him and in his turn
taught him what he knew ; Holman Hunt was the
result of the work of Brown, and the whole school
of Englishmen who liave followed have learned
colour, brilliance, invention, and the use of the
imagination from the once neglected and little
understood work of Ford Madox Brown. G.CW.
BROWN, John, was " Sergeant painter to Henry
VIll.," and received a pension of £10 a year. He
built Painters' Hall for that Company in 1553 ; his
portrait is preserved there (Redgrave).
BROWN, John, the son of a watchmaker, was born at Edinburgh in 175-2, and became a pupil of Alexander Bunciman. When nineteen j-ears of age he went to Rome, whence he sent drawings to the Royal Academy. He afterwards visited Sicily, and made sketches of the ruins of ancient buildings there. In 1786 he went to London, and exhibited miniature portraits. He died at Leith in 1787.
BROWN, John Lewis, French painter, born at Bordeaux the 16th of August, 1829, of a family originally English. He became known by his studies of horses and dogs, sporting scenes and military subjects. Among his most celebrated pictures we may cite ' L'Eeole du Cavalier,' acquired by the Emperor Napoleon III. in 1866. Two episodes taken from the Seven Years' War were exhibited in 1868, and ' Hohenlinden 3 d^cembre 1800,' painted for the 11th Regiment of Chasseurs in 1887. He exhibited some dozen pictures at the Exposition des Artistes at the Champ de Mars in 1890. Several of his pictures were shown at the Universal Exhibitions of 1878 and 1889. He gained medals in 1865, 1866 and 1867, and a gold medal at the Exhibition of 1889. He was decorated with the Legion of Honour in 1870, and died in Paris the 14th of November, 1890.
BROWN, Mather, was born in America (?at Boston), about the middle of the 18th century; came to England when quite young, and became the pupil of his fellow-countryman, West. He ex- hibited his first picture at the Royal Academy in 1782, and continued to send his works to the Exhi- bition constantly until his death. He painted the portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte, and of many of the distinguished English military and naval oflicers of his time , among whom were Elliot, Rodney, and Cornwallis. He also painted subjects from the events of the war in India with Tippoo Saib, and from scenes in Shakespeare for Boydell's Gallery. His art never reached any high standard, and in his latter days it became almost imbecile. He died in London in 1831.
BROWN, Peter, a flower painter, exliihited at the Royal Academy from 1770 till 1791. He was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists and Botanical Painter to the then Prince of Wales.
BROWN, Richard, was an architectural draughts- man of some repute at the beginning of the nine- teenth century. He published views of Chester and Exeter Cathedrals, and several important books on perspective and architecture. His last work, ' Sacred Architecture,' was printed in 1845.
BROWN, Robert, a native of London, was, according to Lord Orford, a disciple of Thornhill, and worked under him on the dome of St. Paul's. On leaving that master he was much employed in decorating churches in the city. He painted the altar-piece of St. Andrew Undershaft ; in St. Botolph, Aldgate, ' The Transfiguration ; ' for the altar in St. Andrew's, Holbom, the figures of St. Andrew and St. John ; and two histories on the sides of the organ. In St. John's chapel, Bedford-row (since pulled down), he painted the figures of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. He died in 175.S.
BROWN, William, an English wood-engraver, was born at York, but settled in Belgium, where he died in 1877. His best plates are :
Notre-Dame Je Bon Conseil ; after Van Maldeghem. The Transfiguration ; after Raphael. The Assumption ; after Rubens. Tlie Holy Family ; after the same. The Last Supper ; after the same. Jesus about to be crowned with Thorns; after Van Dyck.
BROWNE, Alexander, was an artist and en-
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