Charles De Wolf Brownell

Tree and Fence, East Hartford, Connecticut (New England Landscape)

1862

Charles De Wolf Brownell was born in Rhode Island in 1822 and grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. He studied law and pursued a career as a lawyer from 1843 to 1853. He abandoned his law practice after discovering his passion for landscape painting, which he realized during sketching trips he took with artist Henry Bryant in the Connecticut River Valley. He then trained with local artists Julius Theodore Busch and Joseph C. Ropes. In 1857, Brownell worked in a studio in Hartford and relocated to New York City in 1860. He became acquainted with Hudson River School painters, such as Frederic Church and John Frederick Kensett, and was quickly immersed into the New York art scene. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1861, 1862, 1864 and 1865. In 1863, he exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Association, where he showed both American and Cuban landscapes. His work is represented in many public collections throughout the country, including the Wadsworth Atheneum, CT; the New Britain Museum of American Art, CT; and the Princeton University Art Museum, NJ.