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Lot 12

John George Brown
(1831-1913)
I Don't Believe a Word of It

26 September – 7 October 2025, 12:00 EDT
Skinner Marlborough, Massachusetts

US$40,000 - US$70,000

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John George Brown (1831-1913)

I Don't Believe a Word of It
signed and indistinctly dated 'J.G. Brown / N.Y. 186[...]' (lower left); with labels from W. Schaus, New York, and Willoughby-Toschi, San Francisco (affixed to the stretcher)
oil on canvas
30 x 20 1/8 in. (76.2 x 51.1 cm)

Footnotes

Provenance
Sale, Kende Galleries at Gimbel Brothers, New York, February 12, 1946.

N.B.
John George Brown, one of the most celebrated 19th-century genre painters, was born in Durham, England, and began his career in Edinburgh and then New York City as a glassblower. In 1860 he decided to pursue painting full time and set up a studio in New York. He was one of the founding members of the Watercolor Society and its president from 1887 to 1904, and was the vice president of the National Academy of Design from 1899 to 1904. Brown was particularly well known for his depictions of the New York City youth, including figures such as shoe-shiners, newsboys, and street musicians, and for his genre paintings of charming, storybook-like scenes. The present work is a later version of a work that Brown initially conceived in 1862, during the earliest years of his career. There are at least four known versions of the present painting.

We would like to thank Martha Hoppin for her kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.

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