Mia Arnesby Brown

Mia Arnesby Brown
Born1867
Monmouth
Died1931
NationalityBritish
EducationProfessor Herkomer at Bushey
Known forPortrait and figure painting

Mia Arnesby Brown, née Mia Edwards (1867–1931) was a Welsh painter. She was particularly noted for her portraits of children.

Biography

Mia Sarah H. Edwards[1] was born in Cwmbran, Monmouthshire, daughter of Rev. Charles Smallwood Edwards and paternal granddaughter of Rev. Loderwick Edwards, who had been the Vicar of Rhymney.[2][3] She studied under Sir Hubert von Herkomer at Bushey. In 1894, she exhibited at the Nottingham Castle Exhibition of Cornish Painters as Mia Edwards.[4] She showed at least five pieces at the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art under her maiden name.[2]

In 1896, she married John Arnesby Brown.[1][5][6] The couple spent the summer and autumn months in Norfolk and the winter and spring in St Ives, Cornwall.[4] St. Ives was the home of an artists' colony, whose painters participated in the Newlyn School of Open Air Art.[7] She often showcased her works featuring children with the likes of Marianne Stokes and Elizabeth Forbes.[4] One of her best-known works was a portrait of a daughter of the novelist Charles Marriott.[8] In 1906 her piece, Shirley Poppies, was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and in a 1913 exhibit of Welsh artists, she gained acclaim for Mary Reading and The Garden Boy. Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales houses The Garden Boy in its collections.[2] She also has three paintings housed at the Norfolk Museums, Norwich: Girl Fishing (1918), Sleeping Girl (1931) and Thomas South Mack as a Small Boy (undated).[9][10] Her work, Country Girl, is part of the collection of Leamington Spa Art Gallery.[10]

Eventually, the couple settled in the village of Haddiscoe, Norfolk, where Mia Arnsby Brown died suddenly in 1931.[11]

Exhibitions

References

  1. ^ a b "Mia's names at marriage per index of British marriage registrations". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "July's Auction 'Sleeper'…". Chattanooga, Tennessee: The Chattanooga Auction House. June 2014. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  3. ^ Rees, Thomas Mardy. "Brown, Mia Arnesby". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  4. ^ a b c "Mia Arnesby Brown". Cornwallartists.org. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  5. ^ "John Alfred Arnesby Brown". Cornwallartists.org. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  6. ^ "marriahe of J.A.A.Brown per index of British marriage registrations". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  7. ^ Dawn, Leslie (2011). National Visions, National Blindness: Canadian Art and Identities in the 1920s. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: UBC Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7748-4062-0.
  8. ^ Whybrow, Marion (1994). St Ives, 1883-1993: Portrait of an Art Colony. Antique Collectors' Club. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-85149-170-4.
  9. ^ "Norfolk Museums - Norwich - Artworks". The Athenaeum. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  10. ^ a b Wright, Christopher; Gordon, Catherine May; Smith, Mary Peskett (2006). British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections: An Index of British and Irish Oil Paintings by Artists Born Before 1870 in Public and Institutional Collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 213. ISBN 0-300-11730-2.
  11. ^ "Painter city forgot". Nottingham, England: Nottingham Post. 29 May 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2016.