Joseph Brown AO OBE

Joseph Brown AO OBE (1918–2009), art collector, art dealer and philanthropist, arrived in Australia with his father and siblings from Poland in 1933; his mother had passed away shortly before their departure. The family settled in Carlton. In 1934, he started classes in painting and sculpture with Napier Waller at the Working Men's College (now RMIT) and later won a scholarship to the Brunswick Technical College. The Depression put an end to his studies, and in 1940 he enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force. At the conclusion of his military service, in 1945, he married and established a fashion design business, but continued to paint and sculpt and occasionally exhibit his work. By 1967, he was in a position to open the Joseph Brown Gallery in Collins Street, Melbourne, at which he frequently showed mixed exhibitions of contemporary Australian art. Over time, Brown built up one of the finest private art collections in Australia, and made such substantial contributions to Australian art history that he was awarded three honorary doctorates. His gallery often exhibited the work of overlooked or forgotten artists, and his work had the effect of reinstating colonial art, portraiture and other 'unfashionable' genres to critical and scholarly attention. During the same period, Brown donated in excess of 400 works of art to public collections, including a gift of over 150 works with a total value of $35 million to the National Gallery of Victoria in 2004.