| Franklin Brownell | |
| Birth Name: | Peleg Franklin Brownell |
| Birth Date: | 27 July 1857 |
| Birth Place: | New Bedford, Massachusetts |
| Death Place: | Ottawa |
| Nationality: | American-born Canadian |
| Field: | Painter |
| Training: | Boston School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Académie Julian |
| Spouse: | Louise Nickerson (m. 1889) |
Franklin Brownell (born Peleg Franklin Brownell,[1] [2] [3] also known as Franklin Peleg Brownell) (July 27, 1857 – March 13, 1946) born in New Bedford, Massachusetts was a landscape painter, draughtsman and teacher active in Canada. He artistic career in Ottawa spanned over fifty years.[4]
Brownell studied at the Boston Tufts School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1879 and at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1880 to 1883 with William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Tony Robert-Fleury and Léon Bonnat. There he met fellow expatriate and Canadian painter William Brymner.After spending some time in Montreal, Brownell moved to Ottawa in 1886 to take up the position of Headmaster of the Ottawa School of Art until 1900. He accepted the same position as headmaster between 1900 and 1937 with the Women's Art Association in Ottawa, later renamed the Art Association of Ottawa.[5] Among his students were Pegi Nicol MacLeod, Henri Masson and Robert Tait McKenzie.
Brownell was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1895, and the Ontario Society of Artists in 1899. He was also a founding member of the Canadian Art Club in Toronto in 1907. Through the club, he became friendly with Maurice Cullen and James Wilson Morrice. As a result, his palette began to lighten. His most impressionist paintings were painted on several trips to the West Indies between 1911 and 1915.[6] Other painting trips he took were to the Gaspé and Gatineau regions of Quebec, to Algonquin Provincial Park and other areas around Ottawa in Ontario.
Besides landscapes, he produced portraits, flower studies, marine and genre scenes in oil, watercolour and pastel. Though celebrated as an Impressionist, Brownell also created social realist depictions of the city, demonstrating a sensitivity to urban concerns that was rare among his contemporaries.[7]
At the June 8 2023 Cowley Abbott Auction Artwork from an Important Private Collection - Part II, Tea Time (1901), oil on canvas laid on board, 15.5 x 11.5 ins (39.4 x 29.2 cms), Auction Estimate: $12,000.00 - $15,000.00, realized a price of $90,000.00.[13]