Lillian Mason Brown

Lillian Mason Brown was an engraver and painter from St. Louis, Missouri. She was born into a well-connected and respected family. Her father was Benjamin Gratz Brown, a former senator and the 20th governor of Missouri, who was also a candidate for vice president of the United States in 1872. Her sister, Margaretta Gratz Brown, was also an artist.

Brown’s early career was marked by a series of personal trials. Based on her natural talent and the encouragement of her father, she enrolled in the St. Louis School of Fine Arts in 1880. However, upon her father’s death in 1885, Brown shouldered many of the responsibilities of caring for her mother and three sisters, causing her to put her artistic aspirations on hold in order to maintain the family home and pay for her siblings’ education. Brown’s studies were further stymied when the family house burned down and was rebuilt twice, further burdening the family’s finances. In order to make ends meet, Brown established a printing studio with her St. Louis School of Fine Arts classmate, Martha Hoke, and found work in engraving.

Around 1890, Brown was able to resume painting in earnest. She became best known for her delicate watercolors, although she also did works in oil. A distinguishing feature of Brown’s paintings was the influence of travel, foreign culture and architecture. One critic noted that “Brown’s freely painted watercolors brought back the foreign touch, always in acquarelle” (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 26, 1925).

Travel was a constant part of Brown’s work, and she made numerous trips to Europe in order to paint. The sketches and watercolors she produced on these trips often featured architectural motifs, and romanticized the quaint villages, streets and cottages she encountered. Brown continued to return to Europe throughout her career; in 1910, she spent a summer in France and Germany, studying under the American artist Henry B. Snell in Rothenburg, Germany.

Despite the appeal of foreign travel, Brown remained deeply involved in the St. Louis community and worked as an art teacher in St. Louis Public Schools for more than twenty-five years. She was head of the art department at McKinley High School and later at Soldan High School, where she succeeded Augusta Finkelnburg in that position. Brown was also active in the local art community; she was a member of the Society of Western Artists and the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, and served as president of the Guild from 1910-1911.

Sadly, Brown’s career was stopped short when she was fatally injured in an automobile accident in 1924. The St. Louis Artists' Guild mounted a posthumous exhibit in her memory in April of the following year, with some forty-seven of her canvases on display.