Born on a hardscrabble farm in southwestern Minnesota, Nicholas R. Brewer (1857-1949) was celebrated in his lifetime for his portraits in the handsome mode of the Gilded Age of national political and society figures. His peripatetic career took him to thirty states, where he also painted a rich variety of landscapes, characterized by a poetic realism akin to Homer Dodge Martin and George Innes, both of whom were his teachers and friends.   

Unlike many of his contemporary artists, Nicholas Brewer did not have the luxury of art study in Europe. He instead steeped himself in European art, his intimate knowledge of which is manifest in his paintings. Along with other gifted American painters of his era, including John Singer Sargent (to whom his work has been compared) and William Merritt Chase, he undeniably belongs in the grand pantheon of Western Art that began with the Renaissance.

For this first book-length study of Nicholas Brewer, author Julie L’Enfant was privy to family collections of paintings, photographs, catalogues, and genealogical materials. Placing Brewer in the context of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American art, NICHOLAS R. BREWER: His Art and Family is a book whose time has come!   

About the author:

Julie L’Enfant is a leading American art historian and award-winning author. Her earlier art books for Afton Press include THE GAG FAMILY: German Bohemian Artists in America; PIONEER MODERNISTS: Minnesota’s First Generation of Women Artists; and OTHER REALITIES: The Art of Paul S. Kramer.