Gordon Frederick Browne (15 April 1858 – 27 May 1932) was an English artist and children's book illustrator in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

He was born in Banstead

Banstead

Banstead is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in the county of Surrey, England, on the border with Greater London. It lies south of London, west of Croydon and of the county town of Kingston-Upon-Thames. Banstead is on the North Downs and is protected by the Metropolitan Green Belt;...

, the younger son of notable book illustrator Hablot Knight Browne

Hablot Knight Browne

Hablot Knight Browne was an English artist, famous as Phiz, illustrator of books by Charles Dickens, Charles Lever and Harrison Ainsworth.-Biography:...

 (who as "Phiz" illustrated books by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

). He studied art at the Heatherley School of Fine Art

Heatherley School of Fine Art

The Heatherley School of Fine Art was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as principal from James Mathews Leigh . Founded in 1845, the school is affectionately known as Heatherley's...

 and South Kensington Schools and started to receive professional commissions while still at college.

From the 1880s, Browne was one of Britain's most prolific illustrators, his work appearing in newspapers, magazines and many books by children's authors including Frederic William Farrar

Frederic William Farrar

Frederic William Farrar was a cleric of the Church of England .Farrar was born in Bombay, India and educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man, King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he won the Chancellor's Gold Medal for poetry in 1852...

, G.A. Henty, Juliana Horatia Ewing

Juliana Horatia Ewing

Juliana Horatia Ewing was an English writer of children's stories.-Youth and marriage:Known as Julie, she was the second of ten children of the Reverend Alfred Gatty, vicar of Ecclesfield in Yorkshire, and Margaret Gatty, who was herself a children's author...

, Andrew Lang

Andrew Lang

Andrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...

, Talbot Baines Reed

Talbot Baines Reed

Talbot Baines Reed was an English writer of boys' fiction who established a genre of school stories that endured into the second half of the 20th century. Among his best-known work is The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's. He was a regular and prolific contributor to The Boy's Own Paper , in which most...

, L. T. Meade, Catherine Christian

Catherine Christian

Catherine Christian was an English novelist, known for her children’s books and retellings of Arthurian legend. She is classified as having produced 45 works in 85 publications in two languages and with 1,019 library holdings...

 and E. Nesbit

E. Nesbit

Edith Nesbit was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television...

.

Browne worked in watercolour and pen and ink. He was a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours

Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours

The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours , initially called the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, , is one of the societies in the Federation of British Artists, based in the Mall Galleries in London.-History:In 1831 the society was founded as the New Society of Painters in Water...

 (RI) and the Royal Society of British Artists

Royal Society of British Artists

The Royal Society of British Artists is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy.-History:...

 (RBA).

He died in Richmond, London in 1932.

External links

• Biography of Browne (University of Delaware library)
• Work by Browne (V & A)
• Books by Browne (Archive.org)
• Nonsense for somebody, anybody or everybody, particularly the baby-body (Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature
  University of Florida Baldwin Library
  The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature in the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries contains more than 103,000 volumes published in Great Britain and the United States from the early 18th century through the...
  
  )