Mia Arnesby Brown

Welsh artist

Mia Arnesby Brown
Born	1867 Monmouth
Died	1931
Nationality	British
Education	Professor Herkomer at Bushey
Known for	Portrait and figure painting

Mia Arnesby Brown, née Mia Edwards (1867–1931) was a Welsh painter. She was particularly noted for her portraits of children.

Biography

Mia Sarah H. Edwards^[1] was born in Cwmbran, Monmouthshire, daughter of Rev. Charles Smallwood Edwards and paternal granddaughter of Rev. Loderwick Edwards, who had been the Vicar of Rhymney.^[2]^[3] She studied under Sir Hubert von Herkomer at Bushey. In 1894, she exhibited at the Nottingham Castle Exhibition of Cornish Painters as Mia Edwards.^[4] She showed at least five pieces at the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art under her maiden name.^[2]

In 1896, she married John Arnesby Brown.^[1]^[5]^[6] The couple spent the summer and autumn months in Norfolk and the winter and spring in St Ives, Cornwall.^[4] St. Ives was the home of an artists' colony, whose painters participated in the Newlyn School of Open Air Art.^[7] She often showcased her works featuring children with the likes of Marianne Stokes and Elizabeth Forbes.^[4] One of her best-known works was a portrait of a daughter of the novelist Charles Marriott.^[8] In 1906 her piece, Shirley Poppies, was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and in a 1913 exhibit of Welsh artists, she gained acclaim for Mary Reading and The Garden Boy. Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales houses The Garden Boy in its collections.^[2] She also has three paintings housed at the Norfolk Museums, Norwich: Girl Fishing (1918), Sleeping Girl (1931) and Thomas South Mack as a Small Boy (undated).^[9]^[10] Her work, Country Girl, is part of the collection of Leamington Spa Art Gallery.^[10]

Eventually, the couple settled in the village of Haddiscoe, Norfolk, where Mia Arnsby Brown died suddenly in 1931.^[11]

Exhibitions

1894 Nottingham Castle, Exhibition of Cornish Painters (as Mia Edwards)

References

^ ^a ^b "Mia's names at marriage per index of British marriage registrations". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c "July's Auction 'Sleeper'…". Chattanooga, Tennessee: The Chattanooga Auction House. June 2014. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
^ Rees, Thomas Mardy. "Brown, Mia Arnesby". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Mia Arnesby Brown". Cornwallartists.org. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
^ "John Alfred Arnesby Brown". Cornwallartists.org. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
^ "marriahe of J.A.A.Brown per index of British marriage registrations". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
^ Dawn, Leslie (2011). National Visions, National Blindness: Canadian Art and Identities in the 1920s. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: UBC Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7748-4062-0.
^ Whybrow, Marion (1994). St Ives, 1883-1993: Portrait of an Art Colony. Antique Collectors' Club. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-85149-170-4.
^ "Norfolk Museums - Norwich - Artworks". The Athenaeum. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
^ ^a ^b Wright, Christopher; Gordon, Catherine May; Smith, Mary Peskett (2006). British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections: An Index of British and Irish Oil Paintings by Artists Born Before 1870 in Public and Institutional Collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 213. ISBN 0-300-11730-2.
^ "Painter city forgot". Nottingham, England: Nottingham Post. 29 May 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2016.