Michael Brown
1854 - 1947
(James) Michael Brown (1854-1947) was an Edinburgh painter of golfing scenes and the son of a Fife engraver. He is best known for his commissioned series of golfing scenes and personalities produced for the Life Association of Scotland's annual calendars between 1899 and 1916. Some of Brown's other famous works include Open Golf Championship 1895, St Andrews, On Leven Links, Fifeshire and Championship on the Course at Carnoustie. The Life Association of Scotland was established in Edinburgh in 1838. In 1895 the financial community founded the Insurance & Banking Golf Club on the Duddingston estate (later becoming Duddingston Golf Club), beneath the spectacular backdrop of the extinct volcano, Arthur's Seat. To mark the opening of the extended clubhouse, Michael Brown was commissioned to paint a scene from an exhibition golf match held at the club. The Life Association of Scotland used this picture as the centrepiece of their 1899 calendar. It proved such a marketing success that Brown was subsequently commissioned to paint a golfing picture annually until 1916. Prints were made from these original paintings and mounted onto the cardboard calendars produced by the Life Association of Scotland. Brown's original paintings adorned the walls of the Association's Edinburgh head office for many years. Brown often arranged for famous golfers of the day to sit for him during competitions, using these studies to help him later reproduce accurate likenesses of the players in his paintings.
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