He became the first holder of the Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh in 1880 (the first chair in fine art in Britain) and held the chair until his retirement in 1930.[3] In Edinburgh he lived initially at 3 Grosvenor Street in the west of the city[4] before moving to 50 George Square.[5]
It has been said that Brown's most significant work is the six-volume The Arts in Early England, which he started publishing in 1903 and was still working on when he passed away.[6][7] The final volume was completed posthumously by Eric Hyde (Lord Sexton) in 1937.[2] Brown also wrote an early review of historic preservation legislation in various European countries The Care of Ancient Monuments (1905), in which he made unfavourable comparisons between policies in Britain and in other European countries.[8] The book came to the attention of Sir John Sinclair, Secretary for Scotland, and led to the establishment in February 1908 of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (on which Brown served as one of the first Commissioners), followed by equivalent Royal Commissions for Wales and England.[9] His The Glasgow School of Painters was published in 1908.[10] Many of his books were illustrated by his wife, Maude Annie Terrell, a fellow artist, who he married in 1882.[2]
Brown was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1924.[2]
Edinburgh University has a collection of Brown’s papers and photographs in their archive[15] and the Conway LibraryinThe Courtauld Institute of Art, London holds photographs attributed to Brown in their collection of primarily architectural images.[16] Both entities are in the process of digitising the photographs.
^ abcdadmin (21 February 2018). "Brown, Gerard Baldwin". Macdonald, G.『Gerard Baldwin Brown, 1849–1932.』Proceedings of the British Academy 21 (1935): 375–84; The Times (London) 14 July 1932. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
^Vol. 1: The life of Saxon England in its relation to the arts.-Vol. 2: Anglo-Saxon architecture.-Vol. 3: Saxon art and industry in the Pagan period.-Vol. 4.-Vol. 5.-Vol. 6 (2 pt.)
^Sargent, Andrew (2001). ""RCHME" 1908–1998: a history of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England". Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society. 45: 57–80 (58–9).
^ Brown, G. Baldwin (1908), The Glasgow School of Painters, James Maclehose and Sons