John Browne (artist)

John Browne, ARA (26 April 1742 – 2 October 1801), was an English landscape engraver.

Life

Hindringham Hall where Browne's ancestor, John Nabbes, once lived[lower-alpha 1], Gentleman of Hindringham in Norfolk who died on 28 February 1665.

Born on the 26 April 1742[1] at Finchingfield, in Essex, the posthumous son of John Browne[lower-alpha 2] (1715–1741), rector of Bayfield (north of Holt)[6] in Norfolk and his wife Mary Browne (1720–1776) née Pask, daughter of George Pask (1682–1753), vicar of Finchingfield, Essex. He was educated at Norwich, and in 1755 was sent to London by his great-uncle, the physician Messenger Monsey [lower-alpha 3], where he was placed with John Tinney the engraver.

Browne afterwards worked for William Woollett, his fellow apprentice. He quickly distinguished himself in his art, and in 1768 exhibited an engraving of "St. John Preaching in the Wilderness", after Salvator Rosa, which brought him much notice. Two years afterwards he was made an associate engraver of the Royal Academy, and he became distinguished as an excellent engraver of landscapes. Many of his works were published by Boydell. He died at Walworth in 1801. Browne's will was proved on the 29 October 1801.[7]

Browne sat for two portraits, one when he was a boy, by William Woollett, and the other, an exact likeness by American painter Gilbert Stuart. The painting was acquired by Misters Boydell, engraver and print-seller John Boydell mentioned above and his nephew artist and publisher Josiah Boydell.

Family

John Browne eldest son, John Samuel Browne, Esq, late of the East India House died aged 76 on 6 June 1858 at his residence at Walworth, Surrey,[8] Browne was himself an artist and a friend of Rev William Holwell Carr.

A grand-daughter of Browne, Frances Ann Browne, and her husband Edward Miller, formerly manager of the Bank of New South Wales, were murdered on 10 November 1879 at their home in Wellington, New Zealand by one of their sons, Clarence Miller, who shortly afterwards took his own life.[9]

Relatives

British classical scholar William Emerton Heitland (1847–1935) was a member of the same family on his mother side (Mary Heitland née Browne).[10]

Works

The following are his principal engravings:

Arms of Browne

The Arms are Browne of Fulmodeston, Gules, two barrulets between three spear heads argent.[11]

Notes

  1. ↑ Nabbes was one of those selected for the order of Knights of the Royal Oak and was also lord of Asteleys alias Nowers Manor in Hindringham.
  2. ↑ son of Nabbs Browne[2](died c. 1736–37), a Norwich weaver, and his wife Elizabeth Browne, née Monsey. Nabbs was a younger son[3] of John Browne (died 1693) of Saxthorpe in Norfolk, a gentleman bearing Arms.[4][5]
  3. ↑ Lord Cranworth was his great-grandson.
  1. ↑ "Memoirs of John Browne, A.R.A Engraver", The European Magazine, and London Review, Volume 40", October 1801, p. 247.
  2. ↑ "Biolgraphical History of Gonville and Caius College 1349–1897", p. 36
  3. ↑ "Browne of Mundesley and Fulmodeston", contributed by Arthur Campling, Miscellanea genealogica et heraldica, 5th series volume VIII, part 9 (March 1934), p. 264–65.
  4. ↑ "An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk", by Francis Blomefield and Charles Parkin, volume VII, p. 91.
  5. ↑ "The Church Heraldry of Norfolk", by Rev. Edmund Farrer, published by Norwich, A.H Goose and Co, 1889, volume II, p. 285.
  6. ↑ "Biolgraphical History of Gonville and Caius College 1349–1897", p. 36
  7. ↑ "Will of John Browne, Engraver of Walworth, Surrey, proved on the 29 October 1801, PROB 11/1363/290, National Archives
  8. ↑ "John Samuel Browne, Esq", (Obituary), The Gentlemans's Magazine, from July to December, 1858, p. 198.
  9. ↑ "Details of the New Zealand Tragedy". Warwick Argus. 9 December 1879. p. 3.
  10. ↑ "After Many Years, A Tale of Experiences and Impressions Gathered in the Course of an Obscure Life ", by William Emerton Heitland, published by Cambridge University Press, 1926 , p. 1
  11. ↑ "The Church Heraldry of Norfolk", by Rev. Edmund Farrer, published by Norwich, A.H Goose and Co, 1889, volume II, p.285

References

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