boats in distance, ion canvas, mage area 14" X 22" plus elaborate gold frame, well listed artist, born 1840's......W. Warren Brown (born in the 1840s or before) (1)A mid to late 19th century painter, W. Warren Brown (aka: W.W. Brown) was active in the north eastern USA and possibly in Quebec, Canada. He exhibited with the Art Association of Montreal [now Montreal Museum of Fine Arts] in 1881. According to the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS*) his works are in the permanent collections of the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine and the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. (2)(3)His mediums were oils and watercolors. His subjects were landscapes, seascapes, genre*, coastlines, mountains and rivers. The locations included Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey and the Berkshires (e.g. Massachusetts and Connecticut). His style could be described as Hudson River School*, Impressionism*, Luminism* or Realism*. The askART auction results have some good illustrations of his work. The two paintings in the Farnsworth Art Museum collection are also illustrated online; see our sources for the link.An illustration of Brown’s painting entitled Bar Harbor, Maine from the collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum is used as the cover art for the book Discovering Old Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park: An Unconventional History and Guide (1993), by Ruth Ann Hill (see sources below). Footnotes:(1) Researchers please note: Our estimate of a birth decade is based on a paragraph and a footnote in the book Maine Cottages: Fred L. Savage and the Architecture of Mount Desert (see sources below) which notes (on page 23) that an artist by the name of Brown was a guest at the home of Fred L. Savage at Harbor Cottage, Northeast Harbor, Maine in 1868. The footnote on page 269 suggests it may have been one of two artists W. Warren Brown or Harrison Bird Brown. Whether or not it was our Brown is largely irrelevant, the point is that the author considers him to have been a prominent painter in 1868, which would indicate he was likely at least 20 years old putting his birth year in the 1840s or before (see footnote 2 for more on this subject). – M.D. Silverbrooke(2) Researchers please note: There are several websites that say this artist was born in Canada in 1881; however, while he may have been born in Canada, the 1881 date does not reconcile with the 1887 “active” date provided by Who Was Who in American Art, 1564 – 1975 and the Getty Union List of Artist Names, both of which make no mention of Canada or for that matter of where Brown may have been born, lived most of his life, or died. The 1881 birth year also does not reconcile with the 1881 date that he exhibited will the Art Association of Montreal. Early Painters and Engravers in Canada (see sources below) records an artist named W.W. Brown who was active in 1881 and who exhibited landscapes and marine subject matter in Montreal and who exhibited with the Art Association of Montreal in 1881. Two of the three paintings exhibited have titles that indicate they were typical of W. Warren Brown’s New England subject matter: One is titled Atlantic House beach [sic] the other Bounding Cave, coast of Maine (the third work may have been a still life as its title was A match safe). We also noted that two of the ten W.Warren Brown works listed by SIRIS*, as being owned by owned by museums and private individuals, are owned by people who live in Ottawa, Canada; however, on further examination we learned that the provenance states that the paintings were acquired in Conway, New Hampshire in 2003. All of this brings up the obvious fact that just because an artist exhibits his work in Montreal does not mean he lived or worked there. Geographically, Montreal is about 40 miles north of the USA border and the province of Quebec borders 4 states: New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine; in the 1880s (and even today) Montreal would have been one of the closest major cities for a New England artist to show and sell his works. Source: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Spring Exhibitions 1880 – 1970 (see sources below). – M.D. Silverbrooke(3) Researchers please note: Who Was Who in American Art, 1564 – 1975 (see sources) says Brown had a studio in the Corcoran Building in Washington, D.C. in 1887; however, we have seen no works with titles or images which identify them as depicting places in Washington, D.C. or its environs, such as places in Virginia, Maryland or Delaware. On the other hand, the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System* lists seven works by this artist (signed W.W. Brown or W. Warren Brown) with titles indicating the subjects were of locations in Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey or the Berkshires. – M.D. Silverbrooke Sources - Books:Maine Cottages: Fred L. Savage and the Architecture of Mount Desert (2005), by John M. Bryan and photographs by Richard Cheek; Princeton Architectural Press, New YorkWho Was Who in American Art, 1564 – 1975 (1999), by Peter Hastings Falk (see AskART Publications)Discovering Old Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park: An Unconventional History and Guide (1993), by Ruth Ann Hill; Down East Books, Camden, MaineMontreal Museum of Fine Arts: Spring Exhibitions 1880 – 1970 (1988), by Evelyn de R. McMann (see askART Publications)Early Painters and Engravers in Canada (1970), by J. Russell Harper (see askART Publications) Sources - Websites:Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS*)Smithsonian National Museum of American History (Behring Center)Getty Union List of Artist NamesFarnsworth Art Museum (link below)https://collection.farnsworthmuseum.org/objects?query=%22w+brown%22&facet=USER_SYM_15%3APainting* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com. Glossary http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspxWritten and contributed to askART by M.D. Silverbrooke.