BYRON BROWNENocturne.Gouache and watercolor on paper, 1954. 510x660 mm; 20¼x26¼ inches. Signed and dated in gouache, lower left recto.Provenance: Harcourts Gallery, San Francisco, with the label; private collection, Chicago.Browne (1907-1961) studied at the National Academy of Design from 1925 to 1928. He was one of the founding members of the American Abstract Artists (1936) and worked most of his career in a semi-abstract, neo-Cubist style. Browne created murals under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration for the Chronic Disease Hospital and the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1940, he married fellow artist Rosalind Bengelsdorf. Browne taught painting at the Art Students League of New York from 1948 through 1959 and went on to teach at New York University.Browne's work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.