1918-1958
George Browne was recognized in the mid-1950s as a sporting artist of the first rank, the ascendant star among American wildlife painters of his generation. His oils of waterfowl and upland game birds in flight were compared favorably to the works of Frank Benson and Ogden Pleissner, and his paintings of big game animals, to those of Carl Rungius.
Every painting he completed sold quickly, and his dealers were continually pleading for more of his pictures to satisfy the demands of their customers. Browne was talented and skilled and versatile; and as he was a sportsman who knew his subjects from lifelong experience, his pictures had authenticity. He was, furthermore, dedicated to his craft, a painter who worked constantly and conscientiously to improve his technique. Then, in the spring of 1958, at the age of forty, he was killed in a shooting accident, and a brilliant and most promising career was abruptly ended.