John George Brown - Quotes

Quotes

• Wishing to more faithfully capture his subjects as they appear in real life, Brown once said, "They will 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!"
• Brown was trying to capture the spirit of the street children as people who "pull themselves up by their bootstraps."
• Many years later, Brown claimed that most of the street children he painted had grown to become successful businessmen.
• Brown claimed to never forget his poor beginnings, saying "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."

John George Brown was born in 1831 in England and immigrated to America in 1853. While in England Brown 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. Brown 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". Brown 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 butBrown did not want to cause social alarm among patrons. Many of Brown paintings 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 landscape paintings for pleasure. John George Brown exhibited much of his paintings at the National Academy of Design from 1858–1900, where he also taught for many years. John George Brown.