Yellowstone Falls, 1881, oil on canvas, 22 x 14 inches. c. 1900 European painting frame, ebonized wood, gilded liner, molding width 3-1/8 in. “Born to free black parents in 1841 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Brown moved to California as a young man where he began a career as a lithographer and taught himself to paint. He worked in Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks between 1886 and 1893. In Yellowstone he regularly painted the park’s ‘Grand Canyon,’ depicting the gushing waters of Yellowstone Falls and the glistening golden-brown rocks of the canyon walls, pictured here. The recently completed Northern Pacific Railroad had made the park a destination for tourism. Brown exhibited his art in area hotels and received promotional support from Norther Pacific. Today he is known as the first African-American painter of the national park system, but other African-Americans interpreted the parks for the public as well. At this time the U.S. Army managed the parks and assigned African-American regiments to many of them. These soldiers acted not only as guards but also as guides, offering visitors their interpretations of the parks’ natural history.” —museum label. Painting: Museum purchase from the William A. Oates, Jr. Fund for American Western Art and gift of Marjorie M. Fisher

Broom, circa 1914–1917, oil on board, 13" x 11";  c. 1920s American Art Deco painting frame; aluminum leaf on wood. Molding width: 2” Gift of the Alex Katz Foundation Accession 2013.535

Motif From African Textile I and II,  oil on board, 29-1/2" x 9-3/8": matched pair of custom-made replica frames, first-quarter 20th -century American frame; black-painted patinated wood. Molding width 2”.  Gift of the Alex Katz Foundation Accession Number: 2013.533

Church At Head Tide, Maine, 1938, oil on panel, 28" x 22"; c. 1930s-40s American Modernist painting frame. Hand-carved pickled wormy chestnut, patinated gesso on wood flat-and-hollow liner. Molding width: 4-7/8” Painting bequest of Adelaide Moise; Accession number: 1986.021

Brilliant Autumn, Landscape #28, c. 1930, oil on canvas, 25" x 31-1/4"; c. 1931 American Modernist painting frame. Gilded carved wood over red bole; patinated gesso flat-and-hollow liner. Molding width 3-3/4" Painting Gift of C. David O'Brien '58 Accession number 1983.006

Composition With Masked Forms, 1941, oil on canvas, 28-1/8 x 50 in., custom float frame, ebonized walnut exterior and top edge, interior float space light-absorbing matte black. Gift of the Barsalona Family, Museum purchase from the Jere Abbott Acquisition Fund, and gift of Peter and Paula Lunder, The Lunder Collection.