Brabazon was the younger son of Hercules Sharpe and his wife, Anne Mary, the daughter of Sir Anthony Brabazon, 1st Baronet His father then wanted him to study law, but instead he left England and went to Rome to study music and art, enrolling at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Accademia di San Luca.
He attended Harrow School, the École Privat, Geneva, and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics in 1844.
Initially raised in Paris, he moved with his family to Oaklands, an estate near Sedlescombe, East Sussex, in 1832. From then on he led a life of travel, art study and painting, inspired by the works of artists such as Velázquez and Turner. In 1858 he inherited Oaklands, whose management he left to his brother-in-law while he continued to travel - mostly in Europe, but with trips to Africa and India - always returning with his watercolours.
Describing himself as living "for Art and Sunshine", he viewed himself as a gentleman amateur, and did not show or try to sell his work until his mid-seventies.
He died at Sedlescombe in 1906, and is buried there. Due to financial problems with the family estate, in 1926 Brabazon"s relatives sold the works that they had inherited.
The quantity, 3199 over 27 months, seriously devalued their price and Brabazon"s reputation. Since the 1980s, however, the art dealership Chris Beetles Limited has led a revival, and many major museums have examples of his work.
