Margaret Fitzhugh Browne
Encyclopedia
Margaret Fitzhugh Browne (7 June 1884, West Roxbury, Massachusetts
- 11 January 1972, Boston, Massachusetts ), was a painter of portraits, indoor genre scenes, and still lifes, although portraits dominated her output.
. During this period she also received private instruction from the color theorist Albert Munsell
and from Richard Andrew.
She was a firm adherent of realism in art, and was quoted referring to the 1940 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
exhibit of works by Picasso as "an exhibition of crazy stuff". She also founded the Boston branch of the Society for Sanity in Art
and served on the Advisory Board of Josephine Logan's Chicago branch, an organization that promoted the retention of traditional values and styles in art.
From early 1944 through May 1945, Browne served the USO as a Portrait Sketcher, volunteering three times a week, as her diaries now at the Boston Public Library indicate . Photographs of over 120 of these charcoal portraits of servicemen and women were made and presented to her and are archived in the Boston Public Library. Many of the photographs carry the names of the servicemen and women and a few wrote a heartfelt note to her on the back. Similar wartime efforts have been documented and help understand the support that she and others gave to the war .
Among the subjects of her portraits are: Henry A. Wise Wood, Mrs. Wood , the Wood’s children and grandson; Senator William Borah; Arthur D. Little
, whose portrait hung for years in the lobby of his eponymous firm; her brother-in-law, the noted author James Brown
; Miss Eleanor Satterlee, granddaughter of John Pierpoint Morgan, Sr.; King Alfonso XIII of Spain
, whose portrait is in the New York Yacht Club; Ray Curley, the boxer; Charles Kellogg Burdick, one of the first faculty of the Cornell Law School, Dean of the Law School, 1926–36, whose portrait now hangs in the Reading Room of the Law School; Dr. Frederick Taylor Lord and Dr. Reginald Heber Fitz
, whose portraits are now in the Massachusetts General Hospital; Helen Osborn Storrow
, whose portrait hangs in the Museum of the Girl Scouts
in Cedar Hill, Waltham, MA; numerous self-portraits; portraits of family members; and Bobby Jones
, commissioned by the City of Atlanta. One of her most powerful paintings, as described in American Women Artists, 1830–1930, is “Wounded in the War” or “Blessé de Guerre.” Here the “hot red backdrop creates a dynamic foil to the sensitivity expressed in the foreground figures,” a man blinded in World War I and his dog he holds on his lap.
Browne excelled in figure subjects with themes such as "The Chess Player," "The Art Students," “Bridge,” “Little Leaguers,” and portraits of ballet dancers. From A Studio of Her Own, one reads that Browne injected a great deal of feeling into a simple design, and demonstrated a flair for the human and pictorial qualities in her portraits . She was known to reduce her portrait subjects to the simplest planes, attempting to attain a degree of force without crudeness, as in "The Old Farmer's Almanac." In this picture a country man in shirt sleeves reads by a lamp in the comfort of a kitchen. Her model for the work was a farmer who lived near her summer studio in Annisquam. Nine of her portraits are in the Annisquam Village Hall. As Raymond Agler, Fine Arts Dealer, writes on his web page
In 1927, Browne won a commission to go to Europe to paint the King of Spain for the New York Yacht Club. A yachtswoman herself, Margaret Fitzhugh Browne enjoyed the experience immensely, and the painting of Alfonso XIII is considered one of her finest works. Shortly after the King’s death in 1941, Browne wrote an extensive article about meeting the King and painting his portrait. It was published in the March 2, 1941 edition of the Boston Sunday Globe and in it she called the King lively, humorous, agreeable, and a capital story teller.
Browne was a member of most professional artist's groups of her time including the Guild of Boston Artists, Copley Society of Art
, Rockport Art Association
, Grand Central Art Galleries
in New York and at least a dozen others. Her works were included in the exhibitions of most of these organizations and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
and the Art Institute of Chicago
. She was the recipient of many awards. Solo exhibitions of her work were held in Boston in 1915,1917,1926,1938 and 1957; in Duxbury, CT in 1916, in New York City in 1924, in Washington, DC in 1930, at the Boston Art Club in 1936, and at the Newport Art Association in 1950.
Two years after her death at age 87, the Copley Society held a "Memorial Exhibition of Flower Compositions and a Few Portraits by Margaret Fitzhugh Browne." The Copley Society awards the Margaret Fitzhugh Brown Memorial Award for Excellence in Portraiture.
West Roxbury, Massachusetts
West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston bordered by Roslindale to the north, the Town of Dedham to the east and south, the Town of Brookline and the City of Newton to the west. Many people mistakenly confuse West Roxbury with Roxbury, but the two are not connected. West Roxbury is separated from...
- 11 January 1972, Boston, Massachusetts ), was a painter of portraits, indoor genre scenes, and still lifes, although portraits dominated her output.
Family
Browne was the second child of Cordelia Brooks Browne and James Maynadier Browne. She had three sisters (Katherine, Brooks and Emily) and a brother Causten. Her older sister, Katherine, was an artist who illustrated, among other items, children’s verse written by her mother’s second husband, David K. Stevens.Education
Browne studied at the Massachusetts Normal School from 1904 to 1909, where one of her teachers was the popular artist Joseph DeCamp. She attended the Boston Museum School in 1909 and 1910, receiving instruction from Edmund Tarbell and Frank BensonFrank Weston Benson
Frank Weston Benson, frequently referred to as Frank W. Benson, was an American artist from Salem, Massachusetts known for his Realistic portraits, American Impressionist paintings, watercolors and etchings. He began his career painting portraits of distinguished families and murals for the...
. During this period she also received private instruction from the color theorist Albert Munsell
Albert Henry Munsell
Albert Henry Munsell was an American painter, teacher of art, and the inventor of the Munsell color system.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, attended and served on the faculty of Massachusetts Normal Art School, and died in nearby Brookline.As a painter, he was noted for seascapes and...
and from Richard Andrew.
Career
Browne’s career included all aspects of the art world. She had a studio in the Fens and one in Annisquam, an attractive part of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she also taught classes. She began her career as a portrait painter in 1910, was the art editor of the Boston Evening Transcript in 1919-20, and authored a book Portrait Painting in 1933. In this book she advised portraitists to work quickly to capture their sitter’s features and not exhaust them.She was a firm adherent of realism in art, and was quoted referring to the 1940 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
exhibit of works by Picasso as "an exhibition of crazy stuff". She also founded the Boston branch of the Society for Sanity in Art
Society for Sanity in Art
The Society for Sanity in Art was an American artist's society whose members strongly opposed all forms of modern art, including cubism, surrealism, and abstract expressionism. It was founded in Chicago in 1936 by Josephine Hancock Logan, and from there it spread all over the country, with major...
and served on the Advisory Board of Josephine Logan's Chicago branch, an organization that promoted the retention of traditional values and styles in art.
From early 1944 through May 1945, Browne served the USO as a Portrait Sketcher, volunteering three times a week, as her diaries now at the Boston Public Library indicate . Photographs of over 120 of these charcoal portraits of servicemen and women were made and presented to her and are archived in the Boston Public Library. Many of the photographs carry the names of the servicemen and women and a few wrote a heartfelt note to her on the back. Similar wartime efforts have been documented and help understand the support that she and others gave to the war .
Among the subjects of her portraits are: Henry A. Wise Wood, Mrs. Wood , the Wood’s children and grandson; Senator William Borah; Arthur D. Little
Arthur D. Little
Arthur D. Little is an international management consulting firm originally headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and formally incorporated by that name in 1909 by Arthur Dehon Little, an MIT chemist who had discovered acetate. Arthur D. Little pioneered the concept of contracted...
, whose portrait hung for years in the lobby of his eponymous firm; her brother-in-law, the noted author James Brown
James Barnes (author)
James Barnes was an American author. The son of naval officer, lawyer, and collector John Sanford Barnes, he was born at Annapolis, Md., attended St. Paul's School and the Pingry School, before graduating from Princeton in 1891. While at Princeton, he was editor of the literary magazine The...
; Miss Eleanor Satterlee, granddaughter of John Pierpoint Morgan, Sr.; King Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1886 until 1931. His mother, Maria Christina of Austria, was appointed regent during his minority...
, whose portrait is in the New York Yacht Club; Ray Curley, the boxer; Charles Kellogg Burdick, one of the first faculty of the Cornell Law School, Dean of the Law School, 1926–36, whose portrait now hangs in the Reading Room of the Law School; Dr. Frederick Taylor Lord and Dr. Reginald Heber Fitz
Reginald Heber Fitz
Reginald Heber Fitz was an American physician.He graduated in 1864 from Harvard University, where, after studying in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris, he was instructor in pathological anatomy in 1870–1873, assistant professor in 1873–1878, and professor from 1878 to 1908...
, whose portraits are now in the Massachusetts General Hospital; Helen Osborn Storrow
Helen Storrow
Helen Osborne Storrow was a prominent American philanthropist, early Girl Scout leader, and chair of the World Committee of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts for eight years...
, whose portrait hangs in the Museum of the Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts of the USA
The Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad. It describes itself as "the world's preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls". It was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912 and was organized after Low...
in Cedar Hill, Waltham, MA; numerous self-portraits; portraits of family members; and Bobby Jones
Bobby Jones (golfer)
Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr. was an American amateur golfer, and a lawyer by profession. Jones was the most successful amateur golfer ever to compete on a national and international level...
, commissioned by the City of Atlanta. One of her most powerful paintings, as described in American Women Artists, 1830–1930, is “Wounded in the War” or “Blessé de Guerre.” Here the “hot red backdrop creates a dynamic foil to the sensitivity expressed in the foreground figures,” a man blinded in World War I and his dog he holds on his lap.
Browne excelled in figure subjects with themes such as "The Chess Player," "The Art Students," “Bridge,” “Little Leaguers,” and portraits of ballet dancers. From A Studio of Her Own, one reads that Browne injected a great deal of feeling into a simple design, and demonstrated a flair for the human and pictorial qualities in her portraits . She was known to reduce her portrait subjects to the simplest planes, attempting to attain a degree of force without crudeness, as in "The Old Farmer's Almanac." In this picture a country man in shirt sleeves reads by a lamp in the comfort of a kitchen. Her model for the work was a farmer who lived near her summer studio in Annisquam. Nine of her portraits are in the Annisquam Village Hall. As Raymond Agler, Fine Arts Dealer, writes on his web page
Browne's love of the staged scene found perfect expression in her annual "Wax Works", the tableau vivants that she produced every summer for 25 years at the Annisquam Sea Fair (which continues to the present, and was the subject of an article in the "New Yorker"). She had an uncanny talent for identifying facial similarities of the famous or infamous in the looks and manners of her neighbors--who were then recruited to pose as wax figures, the subjects ranging from Marat (with a gob of ketchup on his chest) in his bathtub, to Little Miss Muffet.
In 1927, Browne won a commission to go to Europe to paint the King of Spain for the New York Yacht Club. A yachtswoman herself, Margaret Fitzhugh Browne enjoyed the experience immensely, and the painting of Alfonso XIII is considered one of her finest works. Shortly after the King’s death in 1941, Browne wrote an extensive article about meeting the King and painting his portrait. It was published in the March 2, 1941 edition of the Boston Sunday Globe and in it she called the King lively, humorous, agreeable, and a capital story teller.
Browne was a member of most professional artist's groups of her time including the Guild of Boston Artists, Copley Society of Art
Copley Society of Art
The Copley Society of art is America's oldest non-profit art association. It was founded in 1879 by the first graduating class of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and continues to play an important role in promoting its member artists and the visual arts in Boston...
, Rockport Art Association
Rockport Art Association
Rockport Art Association is one of the oldest art associations in the United States. It started as an artist's cooperative and became a gathering place of New England artists of the 20th century. The artists Aldro Hibbard, Antonio Cirino, Paul Strisik, Anthony Thieme, W...
, Grand Central Art Galleries
Grand Central Art Galleries
The Grand Central Art Galleries were the exhibition and administrative space of the nonprofit Painters and Sculptors Gallery Association, an artists' cooperative established in 1922 by Walter Leighton Clark together with John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, and others...
in New York and at least a dozen others. Her works were included in the exhibitions of most of these organizations and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...
and the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. She was the recipient of many awards. Solo exhibitions of her work were held in Boston in 1915,1917,1926,1938 and 1957; in Duxbury, CT in 1916, in New York City in 1924, in Washington, DC in 1930, at the Boston Art Club in 1936, and at the Newport Art Association in 1950.
Two years after her death at age 87, the Copley Society held a "Memorial Exhibition of Flower Compositions and a Few Portraits by Margaret Fitzhugh Browne." The Copley Society awards the Margaret Fitzhugh Brown Memorial Award for Excellence in Portraiture.