Charles William Brown

Miner and Artist (1882 to 1961)

All the paintings and other documents are © copyright, courtesy of The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent.

“I was astounded by the range of his subject matter. Everything was grist to his mill. He was never short of anything to paint. The match box on the table by his paint box would do for a subject, the paint box itself, even his fingers holding the paint brush. Every ornament in his little street house had been painted with great intensity of observation. Looking through the tea chest was a revelation. I knew that I was looking at the work of an unknown artist of very considerable power, in fact, a great naïve painter. As usual, when I came away from seeing work that had deeply impressed me, I was depressed … The way he drew the simplest domestic object revealed the essence of it. All his shortcomings as an academic painter made his work stronger. What he didn’t know had added to the power of his paintings.” noted from Arthur Berry, “A Three and Sevenpence Halfpenny Man”, Kermase Editions, 1986.