Original vintage cruise ship poster - Britannic - Cunard White Star ocean liner

Samuel John Milton Brown was born in Liverpool on April 13th, 1873. He apprenticed at a firm of lithographic artists at the age of 14. Much of his early life was spent on Liverpool docks, studying ships’ rigging, which gave him a great depth of knowledge on the intricacies of the subject. Brown took formal art lessons at the Liverpool School of Art, studying under John Finnie, a well-known engraver and landscape artist. In his art, he was able to capture the everyday Mersey scene with the well-recognized waterfront acting as backdrop to the comings and goings of the various vessels he portrayed. He was adept at both watercolor and oil, although the former was his most popular medium. With failing eyesight and reduced circumstances, Brown died in 1965.