James Francis Brown

James Francis Brown was the founding president of the Buffalo Society of Artists when it was formed in April, 1891 as the result of an informal discussion he hosted in his studio. Ammi M. Farnham served as the first vice-president, and Mark M. Maycock was secretary. In 1893, the society moved into the basement of the Albright Art Gallery. 

Brown also was a member of the Salmagundi Club and the Society of Independent Artists. He studied at the National Academy of Design, the Academie Julian, and the Academy Colarossi. He studied under William Bouguereau, and exhibited at the Salmagundi Club, National Academy of Design, the Society of Independent Artists, and the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. 

Two of his paintings, then in the Cataract House at Niagara Falls, appeared on the cover of Niagara Falls, Nature's Throne, Denver, ca. 1907, Published by The Williamson-Haffner Co., one entitled The Red Man's Fact, shows a nude Native American princess going over the falls in a canoe as a sacrificial offering; and the other entitled The White Man's Fancy, shows "a beautiful maiden whose beckoning finger lures one to follow her to her fascinating but dangerous home" beneath the falls; this later work was also reproduced on a postcard of the time.

[bio from AskArt http://www.askart.com/artist_bio/James_Francis_Brown/27383/James_Francis_Brown.aspx, accessed on April 5, 2018]