Bushkill Creek View from Locust Street

Henry E. Brown was usually not a landscape painter - rather, he was known as a portrait painter. However, he enjoyed the Lehigh Valley region enough to capture some of its natural beauty on his canvas. There is almost no information on Brown's life available, but the scenes he painted are nonetheless timeless representations of the Lehigh Valley's history.

Brown was born around 1844, and was a local artist that resided in Bethlehem, Easton, and Northampton over the course of his life. Besides portraits, he also made a large number of Civil War illustrations. He had an exhibition at the National Academy of Design in 1886. While his life is a mystery, Brown's artwork survives today as a timeless reminder of the man behind the brush.

This painting depicts Bushkill Creek, a scenic creek running through Easton, Pennsylvania that points north. While development and the population expansion of the Lehigh Valley has taken over a large portion of the landscape that 19th century artists recognized, Bushkill Creek remains intact today, even as the areas around it are developed and razed of their unique natural elements.

Brown also captured Bushkill Creek in the work Bushkill Creek from Detrich Road, which can be viewed in Payne Gallery’s Collection.