Identity:

Thomas Austin-Brown was a landscape and genre painter, etcher and woodcut artist.

Life:

Austin-Brown was the son of a drawing-master.

Austin-Brown was a student of the Royal Scottish Academy School, and soon caught the attention of the critics at the exhibitions. His paintings, The Strawberry Harvest (1884), `Love Lightens Toil' (1885), `Hark! The Cuckoo' (1886) and `Playmates' (R.A 1886) were scenes from country life, and were noted for their vibrant colours and sentimentality. As a result of his work at Cambuskenneth, Austin -Brown became closely associated with the Glasgow movement, working in both oil and watercolour. As a result, he also shared their early success in London and on the Continent. Austin-Brown later lived in the north of France, where he continued to paint in watercolour, and completed much of his later work. Austin-Brown was a successful artist, who won several first-class medals at print exhibitions in Munich, Dresden, Barcelona and Budapest (1861-1911).

The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers also invited him to exhibit, when JW was still its president.

Bibliography:

Caw, James L, Scottish Painting: Past and Present 1620-1908, Edinburgh, 1908; Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; Harris, Paul and Halsby, Julian, The Dictionary of Scottish Painters: 1600 to the Present, 2nd ed., Edinburgh, 1998; Wood, Christopher, The Dictionary of Victorian Painters, 2nd ed., Suffolk, 1998; http://www.scharlau.co.uk; http://www.getty.edu (accessed 2003).