Career
Though primarily an illustrator, he wrote the scientific descriptions of some species, such as the brightly marked North American Arctiid moth Haploa clymene. Brown"s illustrations included birds, botanical subjects and insects. Brown exhibited at the Free Society of Artists and the Royal Academy from 1770 until 1791.
He was appointed to be Botanical Painter to the Prince of Wales in 1783.
He contributed botanical illustrations to private albums of Elizabeth Montagu, wife of George Montagu, 4th Duke of Manchester, implying that he was her drawing master and tutor.