Born on 14 March 1851 in Chelmsford, Essex, Brown studied at the Royal College of Art (1868-77) and in Paris at Academie Julian with Robert-Fleury and Bougereau (1883). In the Edgbastonia, Fred Brown is noted ‘before his professional days’ to have shared a house in Newlyn in 1881 with eight other artists, including William John WAINWRIGHT, Charles Henry WHITWORTH, Edwin HARRIS and Richard Malcolm LLOYD.

Bednar has noted a Newlyn title by Brown in 1881, and in 1892 he succeeded Alphonse Legros as a Slade Professor. Scott has noted ‘a fairly brief connection with Walberswick’ in his essay on the coastal artists colonies in Painting at the Edge. Brown played an important part in the founding of the NEAC with a number of others, including those from Newlyn. Two of his paintings were purchased in 1933 (Portrait of the Painter) and 1940 (The Ivy Arch) for the Chantrey Bequest. He died on 8 January, 1941, age 89, at Richmond upon Thames.