A Surprise Party, 1888

  • John George Brown, American, 1831-1913

Oil on canvas

  • Unframed: 25 × 20 inches (63.5 × 50.8 cm)
  • 39 × 34 × 5 inches (99.1 × 86.4 × 12.7 cm)

Detroit Museum of Art Purchase

88.1

Department

American Art before 1950

Signed, lower left: Copyright | J. G. Brown N.A.

1888-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

“John G. Brown.” Harper’s Weekly 24 (June 12, 1880): p. 373. Sheldon, George W. American Painters. New York, 1881, pp. 141-144. _______________. Hours with Art and Artists. New York, 1882, pp. 148-152. Benjamin, Samuel G. W. "A Painter of the Streets." Magazine Of Art 1, 5 (1882): pp. 265-270. Catalogue Of Painting And Sculpture: Opening Exhibition. Exh. cat., Detroit Museum of Art. Detroit, 1888, no. 24. Catalogue Of Paintings, Water Colors, Drawings, Etchings, and Collection Of Corean Antiquities: Second Exhibition. Exh. cat., Detroit Museum of Art. Detroit, 1889, p. 8, no. 11. McClinton, Katherine M. "John George Brown: Sentimental Painter of the American Scene." Connoisseur 200 (April 1979): pp. 242- 247 (fig. 9). Burns, Sarah. Pastoral Inventions: Rural Life In Nineteenth-Century American Art And Culture. Philadelphia, 1989, pp. 310-311. American Paintings In The Detroit Institute Of Arts Volume 2. New York, 1997, pp. 31-33 (ill.).

John George Brown, A Surprise Party, 1888, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Museum of Art Purchase, 88.1.