Paul Desmond Brown

Three Steeplechasers - Drypoint Etching on Paper

1930s

Paul Brown was an American illustrator of equestrian subjects although he was never formally trained as an artist. He is primarily known for his paintings, drawings and sketches of horses and equestrian sports. He is also well-known for his over three decades of illustrations for Brooks Brothers catalogs including more than one-thousand drawings. These illustrations made him a major influence on the image of urban males in twentieth-century America. With Paul Brown's art, color is only an occasional adjunct playing a very secondary role to the use of the hard-edged line. His style has a calculated simplicity, a casual appearance, but is very carefully contrived and executed with much authority. Illustrations by Paul Brown drew heavily upon copious notes and studies, often aided by photography as well as photographic memory. Brown preferred to draw with a pencil and, although not fond of painting, successfully employed a technique of using tinted paper with white highlights. During the heyday of polo in the 1930's, Paul Brown immortalized the sport for many in his illustrations for Peter Vischer's POLO magazine, of which Brown was a member of the editorial board. "Today those historical moments are often taken for granted, as is much of the past, but we still have Paul Brown's unique legacy to breathe life into those special times." Illustrating and writing books became Brown's main occupation, and he worked with the major publishers of the day including The Derrydale Press, Charles Scribner's Sons, Dodd, Mead & Company.