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Lot Essay
Brownell was born in Providence, Rhode Island but grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut. He studied art under Julius Busch, a well known Hartford drawing teacher, and with the panoramist Joseph Ropes.
Beginning in 1853, Brownell spent seven consecutive winters in Cuba where his mother's family, the de Wolfs of Bristol, Rhode Island, had extensive sugar plantations. There he captured the tropical landscape around Matanzas in paintings such as The Bay of Matanzas, Cuba. Brownell is considered to be one of the first American artists to paint the tropics. His Cuban landscapes may well have been known to another Hartford painter, Frederic Edwin Church, who also first visited the tropics in 1853.
Beginning in 1853, Brownell spent seven consecutive winters in Cuba where his mother's family, the de Wolfs of Bristol, Rhode Island, had extensive sugar plantations. There he captured the tropical landscape around Matanzas in paintings such as The Bay of Matanzas, Cuba. Brownell is considered to be one of the first American artists to paint the tropics. His Cuban landscapes may well have been known to another Hartford painter, Frederic Edwin Church, who also first visited the tropics in 1853.