John Browne (c. 1760): Art, History and Details

John Browne (c. 1760) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Joseph Blackburn (British, c. 1730–1787).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In his portrait by Joseph Blackburn, Boston civic administrator John Browne is seated with legs crossed at the knees, his right hand partially inserted in his waistcoat, and his left hand pressed against his hip. Blackburn used this stock pose in other portraits he made of men, including one of Browne's brother-in-law.

Object facts

• Title: John Browne
• Date: c. 1760
• Creator attribution: Joseph Blackburn (British, c. 1730–1787)
• Culture: America
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Unframed: 123 x 99 cm (48 7/16 x 39 in.)
• Collection: American - Painting
• Department: American Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1919.1019

A detail from the museum

The year of painter Joseph Blackburn's death was unknown until 2015, when it was discovered in a British archive.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• Park, Lawrence. "Report on the Department of Colonial Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 7/8 (1919): 130-31.
• L. P. "Two Portraits by Joseph Blackburn." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 9 (1919): 139-47.
• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 10 (1919): 162.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.