William Marshall Brown RSA 1863-1936

W. Marshall Brown, whose death took place at his residence in York Place on 24th April, was born in Edinburgh in 1863. As a youth he was engaged in wood engraving and book illustration, and studied Art as an evening student at the Royal Institution. He was a Member of the Academy’s Life School from 1884 to 1888, gaining the Stuart Prize and on two occasions the Chalmers Bursary.

Many of his studies at the Royal Scottish Academy Class were in water-colour, a medium in which he excelled, but which, as some may regret, he seldom made use of for his exhibited work. His election to the Academy as Associate took place in 1909, and in 1928 he was made a full member.

In 1929 he was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours. He was an original member of the Society of Scottish Artists, and Chairman during 1905. Marshall Brown’s typical pictures were of sunny shores or harbours with children or fisherfolk. Many of them derived from Holland and Belgium or from France, where at Concarneau he found the bright local colour which interested him. In the garden of his studio at the Cove, Cockburnspath, he painted many of his large figure subjects.

The Academy possesses his Diploma Work “ A Breton Washing Pool” and ‘Washing, Volendam,” purchased from the Funds of the Thorburn Ross Memorial. The Modern Arts Association acquired ‘‘ Sardine Fishers.” There are also works in Paisley and in Harrogate public galleries. Married in 1912, he is survived by his widow, who is also a painter.

Transcribed from the 1936 RSA Annual Report