Margaret Oliver Brown (1912–1990) late 1930s
Margaret Oliver Brown (1912–1990)
National Galleries of Scotland
Margaret Oliver Brown was born Margaret Oliver McDonald in Glasgow, Scotland on 20 September 1912. From 1927 she trained as a commercial artist at the Publicity Club in Glasgow and was awarded a certificate in Elementary Advertising. She also attended evening classes at Glasgow School of Art from 1927 to 1934 and from 1937 to 1939. From 1939 to 1941 she took day day classes in drawing and painting and portraiture at the school. From 1930 to 1939 she was employed as Advertising Manager at Arnotts, a department store in Glasgow. She subsequently pursued a successful career as a freelance commercial artist and fashion illustrator working into the 1960s. However, she was forced to abandon her work as a painter in the late 1940s because of the onset of rheumatoid arthritis.
She exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; in the annual exhibition of the Society of Scottish Artists at the RCA; and with the New Scottish Group. She was a founder member of the New Art Club in 1940 and the New Scottish Group in 1942.
In 1936 she married William Oliver Brown (1903-1976), a school teacher. He was a prominent member of the Scottish nationalist movement and she drew satirical cartoons for political pamphlets produced by him. She died in Norwich, England on 17 November 1990. Her address at the time of her death was 196 Unthank Road, Norwich.
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
