Born in Newark, New Jersey, Matilda Browne was active in Greenwich, Connecticut, New York City, and Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she was affiliated with the art colony centered at Florence Griswold's home.

She is honored with the reputation of being the only woman at Old Lyme who was taken seriously as a painter by her male colleagues, and she was considered an important member of the Old Lyme group.  In fact, Browne was asked to paint a door panel in the dining room at Miss Griswold's, a prestigious invitation and one that clearly shows she was a part of that coterie of artists.

As a young painter, Browne studied under Thomas Moran in New Jersey.  She went on to study flower painting with Eleanor and Kate Greatorex, livestock painting with Carleton Wiggins, and animal painting with the Dutch artist Henry Bisbing.

After spending time in Europe in the late 1880s, Browne returned to New York City and began to exhibit in the metropolitan area.  Records show that the artist was in Greenwich, presumably working at Cos Cob, in the late 1890s, and on and off throughout her career; she worked in Old Lyme from 1905-06 and periodically from 1911-24.

Sometime around 1918 she married Frederick Van Wyck, and in 1932 her illustrations were published in her husband's book, Recollections of an Old New Yorker.

Although flower and animal painting became Browne's specialty, her skill in both genres led her to elevate her subject matter, and her work stands comparison with some of the best Impressionists of the age.

Memberships:

American Watercolor Society, New York, NY; New York Society of Painters, New York, NY; Greenwich Art Association, Greenwich, CT; Allied Artists of America, New York, NY; Founding member, National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, New York, NY

Awards:

Dodge Prize (National Academy of Design, 1889); Third Hallgarten Prize (National Academy of Design, 1901); Connecticut; Academy of Fine Arts (awards, 1918, 1919); Greenwich Art Association (prize, 1929)