artist, b. England. He accompanied his parents to America and studied the principles of painting. Efforts to earn a living as portraitist in Milwaukee proved discouraging, so he returned to England in 1845 to paint and study. After achieving a minor reputation, he returned to Milwaukee in 1847 and soon won recognition. In addition to his regular clientele, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin commissioned him to execute some 30 portraits of prominent settlers and Indian chiefs. Brookes and Thomas H. Stevenson shared the same studio, held joint exhibitions and art lotteries, sketched sites for the Fox-Wisconsin River Improvement Company, and painted the Wisconsin-Heights, Pecatonica, and Bad Axe battlegrounds. In 1862 Brookes settled in San Francisco, added to his reputation, and helped found the San Francisco Art Association. Most of his Wisconsin work, including a self-portrait, hangs in the museum gallery of the State Historical Society. P. Butts, Art in Wis. (Madison, 1936); H. L. Conard, ed., Hist. of Milwaukee Co. (3 vols., Chicago [1896]); WPA MS.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Samuel Marsden Brookes Daybook for details.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]