Browne, Belmore 1880 - 1954
Belmore Browne was a sculptor, landscape and animal painter and illustrator who late in his career became well known for his illustrations of Alaskan travel books. He wrote and illustrated The Conquest of Mt. McKinley. Browne was born in Staten Island, New York. He studied with William Merritt Chase and Carroll Beckwith and at the Academie Julian in Paris.
From 1902 to 1912, he worked as an illustrator and after that took up fine-art painting. In 1926, he moved to California, where he served as the Director of the Santa Barbara School of Arts from 1930 to 1934. Later in his life, he divided his time between Ross, California, and Alberta, Canada.
Exhibition venues included the Pennsylvania Academy and the National Academy of Design, and he was a member of the National Academy.
Source: Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940
Career Highlights from Kesler Woodward, Painting in the North
- Browne's 1913 'Mt. McKinley, the South Face' is one of his most striking images of the mountain that captured his focus for almost a decade. It is painted with the attention to detail that is that of a naturalist and mountaineer, and the drama and skill of one of the country's most noted mountain painters.
- In 1902 and 1903, while still in his early 20s, Browne served as hunter, illustrator and specimen preparer for naturalist Andrew Jackson Stone on his Alaska mammal collecting expedition for the American Museum of Natural History.
- After 1905 Browne turned his energies to mountaineering and was part of a group that in 1907 made the first ascent of Mt. Olympus in Washington State.
- An oil he painted in 1907 of Mount McKinley is the earliest known painting of the mountain.
- Browne later wrote many articles about his experiences on the mountain, and in 1913 published 'The Conquest of Mt. McKinley', which was illustrated with his own works. He continued to write and climb, but thereafter settled chiefly on being an artist.
- He was elected to the National Academy of Design.
