Helen Elsie Brown
Birthname: Helen Elsie Brown
Nationality: English
Date of birth: ca 1887
Place of birth: London
Date of death: 26 September 1866
Place of death: Rye Memorial Hospital
Category: sitter
Identity:
Helen ('Nellie') Brown was the daughter of the London art dealer Ernest G. Brown. Brown married Elsie (Eliza) Taylor in 1895 and lived at Dulwich Village where both their children, Helen ('Nellie') and Oliver Frank Brown were born. Helen was baptised on 22 May 1887. In 1911 the 24 year old Helen was recorded as a music student, living with her family at 2 Rdwardes Place in Kensington, London. Her brother Oliver followed his father's footsteps, and became an art dealer.
Life:
Brown commissioned a portrait of Nellie from Whistler. Rose and Gold: 'Pretty Nellie Brown' y451 was begun in 1896 at 8 Fitzroy Street but was not fully completed until May 1900. From 1896 to 1898 Whistler was in correspondence with Mrs Brown, mainly concerning sitting arrangements for Nellie. For example, on 27 October 1896 he writes to Mrs Brown that Nellie's hair must not be cut (GUW #03653). The artist stayed in contact with his 'Pretty little Nellie Brown' until 1901, sending her short messages and Christmas cards.
Bibliography:
Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 .
'Deaths', The Times (London, England), 27 September 1966,p. 2
'Helen Elsie Brown', Ancestry.com.
