Joseph Archibald Brown

Joseph Brown came from a family that had immigrated from Russia and spent his youth in Philadelphia. As a versatile athlete he was granted a scholarship to Temple University. After leaving the university without graduating, he took up professional boxing. While working as an artist’s model he took an interest in sculpture. Brown became a long-time apprentice and assistant of renowned sculptor Tait McKenzie, but never underwent academic training. In 1937 Brown started a long career as the boxing coach at Princeton and two years later started teaching sculpture at the same university, lecturing as a professor of visual arts from 1962-77. Brown produced more than 400 statuettes, portrait busts, and sculptures, mostly in bronze, and was best known for his sculptures of athletes. He died in a Philadelphia hospital after a long illness.