The World of J. G. Brown

Résumé du livre

John George Brown (b. 1831) was one of the most popular American artists of the later nineteenth century and a prominent fixture in the New York art world. His wide-spread appeal and his financial success were legendary. In 1882, Harper's Weekly declared, "We have no more popular artist in America than J.G. Brown. He is more certain of his audience, and more direct in his appeal to it, than any other." Brown painted two worlds, the rural and the urban. His scenes of children playing in the countryside resemble works by his contemporaries, Winslow Homer and Eastman Johnson. His innovative urban scenes represent the impoverished children who swept crossings, shined shoes, played music, and sold flowers and apples on New York City's streets. During a career that spanned over fifty years---from the Civil War to World War I---he expressed his personal faith in freedom and self-reliance. These, and his passion for storytelling, were the threads that united his worlds. --