John Frederick Braun

Identity:

John Frederick Braun and his wife Edith (née Evans) were collectors of American art. Braun was a manufacturer, concert singer, and a patron of music and art. He was president of the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and a member of the board of the Pennsylvania Museum. She was a pianist: they married in 1920.rited

Life:

It seems that Braun knew Whistler, possibly in the late 1890s. In the early 1900s Whistler's biographers, the Pennells, asked Braun for copies of the Whistler letters he owned. Apparently Braun had at least one framed on the wall of his office (Pennell correspondence, 4 November 1919, Library of Congress).

Braun may have known the Pennells in Philadelphia and had a large collection of Joseph Pennell's work. He was a contributor to A Catalogue of a Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Joseph Pennell (exh. cat., American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, 1927).

Braun purchased Harmony in Grey and Peach Colour y131 from Mrs Benjamin Thaw through Mrs C. Lewis Hind of London in 1918. He had the picture restored to its original condition by Hannah Mee Horner.

Bibliography:

Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908 ; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 ; 'Braun, John F.', Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America, The Frick Collection .