Brown began his career working as an illustrator for The Chicago Tribune. In about 1900 he went to New York to pursue study in the fine arts at the Art Students League, where he worked under with Kenyon Cox and George Bridgman. He moved on to France in 1907, where he settled in Trepied, near Etaples, taking the house just vacated by Chauncey Ryder. In Paris he studied at the Acad‚mie Julian with Jean Paul Laurens and with Rene Menard and Jean Francois Raffaelli.
In 19l4 Brown returned to the United States and settled in New England. The following year his The Dunes, which had been executed in Trepied, was purchased by the Friends of American Art for the Art Institute of Chicago.
Brown had a long and successful career as a landscape painter in both oil and watercolor, and was especially active in professional and social artists organizations. One-man exhibitions of his work were held at the Arden Gallery, New York, in 1923, 1929, and 1937; and at the Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, in 1926 and 1937. Among his many awards were: from the Salmagundi Club, the Isidor Water Color Prize, 1918; the Samuel T. Shaw Purchase Prize, 1925 and 1938; the Auction Prize, 1928; Annual Exhibit Prize, 1930; from the National Academy, an Altman prize in 1926; and from the American Watercolor Society, prizes in 1937 and in 1943.
Brown was president of the American Watercolor Society from 1939 to 1944, and held the title of honorary president of the Society for the remainder of his life. It was under his leadership that the New York Watercolor Club and American Watercolor Society were merged. The Academy elected him to three-year terms on the Council in 1931 and in 1940, and to the office of vice president for the year 1949-50.
Brown maintained a studio in New York where he worked during the winters, and a home in Wilton, New Hampshire, where he spent the summers.
