Artist.  He was raised in Connecticut and became an attorney in 1843.  In the early 1850s an illness led Brownell to give up practicing law for a career as a painter.  In 1854 he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Hartford’s Trinity College.  After several years of study, in 1860 Brownell established a studio in New York City, where he worked until 1865.  He studied and worked throughout Europe until 1871, afterwards returning to the United States and settling in Bristol, Rhode Island.  Brownell also traveled and worked in Cuba, Jamaica, Egypt and several other countries, and one of America’s foremost painters of landscapes and seascapes.  His most well known work is a painting of Connecticut’s Charter Oak, which has proved to be an invaluable reference since the historical tree fell in 1856.  His other paintings include “Burning of the Gaspee”, “A Sunset at Bristol”, “The Caspian Run Aground”, “The Bay of Matanzas”, “Hartford”, “Havanna”, “Ceiba”, “Limestone Cliffs of Bolondron, Cuba”, “‘Easton’s Beach, Newport, Rhode Island'”, “Cuban Sugar Plantation”, “Gessenay”, “Gifferhorn”, and “Three Tree Trunks, Armonia”.  He also co-authored and illustrated a well-known work on the history of Native Americans, 1855’s “The Indian Races of North and South America”. (bio by: Bill McKern)  Family links:  Parents:  Pardon Brownell (1788 – 1846)  Lucia Emilia DeWolf Brownell (1796 – 1884)  Spouse:  Henrietta M. Knowlton Angell Brownell (1837 – 1897)*  Children:  Carl DeWolf Brownell (1866 – 1915)*  Ernest Henry Brownell (1867 – 1945)*  Edward Ibarra Brownell (1870 – 1937)*  Roger Williams Brownell (1876 – 1899)*  Siblings:  Francis DeWolf Brownell (1817 – 1833)*  Henry Howard Brownell (1820 – 1872)*  Charles DeWolf Brownell (1822 – 1909)  Emilia DeWolf Brownell (1823 – 1838)*  Edward Rogerson Brownell (1825 – 1889)*  Clarence Melville Brownell (1828 – 1862)* *Calculated relationship