John Browne (artist)

John Browne, ARA (26 April 1742 – 2 October 1801), was an English landscape engraver.

Born on the 26 April 1742 at Finchingfield, in Essex, the posthumous son of John Browne (1715–1741), rector of Bayfield (north of Holt) in Norfolk and his wife Mary Browne (1720–1776) née Pask, daughter of George Pask (1682–1753), vicar of Finchingfield, Essex. He was educated at Norwich, and in 1755 was sent to London by his great-uncle, the physician Messenger Monsey , where he was placed with John Tinney the engraver.

Browne afterwards worked for William Woollett, his fellow apprentice. He quickly distinguished himself in his art, and in 1768 exhibited an engraving of "St. John Preaching in the Wilderness", after Salvator Rosa, which brought him much notice. Two years afterwards he was made an associate engraver of the Royal Academy, and he became distinguished as an excellent engraver of landscapes. Many of his works were published by Boydell. He died at Walworth in 1801. Browne's will was proved on the 29 October 1801.

Browne sat for two portraits, one when he was a boy, by William Woollett, and the other, an exact likeness by American painter Gilbert Stuart. The painting was acquired by Misters Boydell, engraver and print-seller John Boydell mentioned above and his nephew artist and publisher Josiah Boydell.

John Browne eldest son, John Samuel Browne, Esq, late of the East India House died aged 76 on 6 June 1858 at his residence at Walworth, Surrey, Browne was himself an artist and a friend of Rev William Holwell Carr.

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