Born in Newark, New Jersey, Matilda Browne is noted for her farm and cattle scenes, which has led to her being compared to the French woman painter of cattle, Rosa Bonheur. Browne also did floral paintings but her reputation was for her ability to paint cows as though they were actually standing in the field. A child protege, she received early art training from her artist-neighbor, Thomas Moran, from Elizabeth and Kate Greatorex, and Frederick Freer who came from Philadelphia to give her lessons.

Browne studied in Paris, beginning 1889, with Julian Dupre, "one of the great French painters of cattle", and then went to Holland. There she bought a cow to use as a model. Painting this animal in a pose ...