Jennie Augusta Brownscombe was born on Dec. 10th 1850 in a log cabin near Honesdale, PA. the only daughter of William and Elvira (Kennedy) Brownscombe. She began to draw pictures as a child and while in grade school she exhibited paintings at the Wayne Country Fair, where they won ribbons. In 1871, after having been a teacher for a period of time, she went to New York City and graduated from the School for Design for Women of the Cooper Union. She then studied four years at the National Academy of Design and was a founder and teacher of the Art Students League. In Paris, she studied with American artist, Henry Mosler, and from 1886 to 1895, maintained a studio in Rome where she spent part of each year. She also maintainted her ties to her home country, keeping a studio in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Henry Hall, a close friend and long-time influence on Brownscombe’s painting, shared the Catskill studio until his death in 1913.

Brownscombe’s illustrations were widely published and became very popular: "Scribner's Magazine," "Harpers Weekly," Louis Prang and other magazines, card and calendar firms, and publishers of prints began to seek her out. Such pictures as "Love’s Young Dream" and "Sunday Morning in Sleepy Hollow" were widely reproduced in photogravures, etchings and engravings. During her career she copyrighted over one hundred prints. Her watercolors were also popular as well as her oils.

During the 1890's, influenced by childhood stories and a revival of interest in America's past, Brownscombe turned to historical subjects. Themes such as "The Peace Ball," Washington introducing Rochambeau and Lafayette to his mother after the Yorktown victory, and "The First American Thanksgiving" would preoccupy her for the rest of her career.

She was able to support herself through her art. Successful though she was, her commercial efforts only provided a modest income. She lived simply with one companion or servant. During the twenties she painted several portraits to supplement her illustration work. An active artist until the end of her life, at the age of seventy-six despite a stroke, she painted "Children Playing in an Orchard" for the Lincoln School in Honesdale, PA. At the age of eighty-five she died in New York City of atrophy of the brain with cardiac complications. She was buried beside her parents in Glen Dyberry Cemetery, Honesdale.

She was a member of the National Arts Club, the National Association of Women, and the New York Municipal Art Society, as well as the American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the May Flower Descendants. Her works were exhibited at the Art Students League, the Royal Academy, Rome Watercolor Society; she also exhibited in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Brownscombe was certainly an intrepid and prolific artist. Her accomplished works, capturing iconic moments of American nostalgia, continue to charm viewers today and shape Americans’ visions of our nation’s past.

Sources:
Paul Sternberg, Sr. "Art by American Women"
Blake Benton Fine Art
AskArt.com