Margaretta Gratz Brown

Artist and teacher Margaretta Gratz Brown was born on May 6, 1869 in St. Louis, Missouri. Brown graduated from the St. Louis Normal School for teachers in 1889 before studying at the Pratt Institute in New York. She taught under Dr. John W. Withers at Harris Teachers College (now Harris-Stowe State University) in 1908. Brown taught art for many years in the St. Louis Public Schools system, at Central, Yeatman, Soldan, and Roosevelt High Schools.

A painter and sketch artist of street scenes and still lifes, Brown spent summers in Cape Cod, studying art at the famous Provincetown Art Colony. Her teachers there included the noted painters E. Ambrose Webster, Charles Woodbury, and William Chase. 

In St. Louis, Brown was a member of the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, exhibiting with them in 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, and 1925, culminating in a solo exhibition of her work in 1928. She was also active with the Society of Independent Artists, participating in their 1924 and 1927 exhibitions. Her sister, Lillian Mason Brown, was also an accomplished artist in St. Louis. 

At the age of 62, Margaretta Gratz Brown died in St. Louis on March 4, 1932. She is interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Kirkwood.