Winter Scene, Minnesota, 1920 oil on canvas, Collections Fund Purchase

Born in Olmsted County, Minnesota, Nicholas Brewer became interested in art as a small child after buying a painting from a peddler for ten cents.  Brewer's career in art began when he sketched scenes from his family's farmyard and sold them at community picnics.  Upon turning eighteen, he moved to St. Paul where he painted houses and sketched crayon portraits on the side.  Ten years later, Brewer moved his family to New York where he studied under Dwight W. Tryon and Charles Noel Flagg. 

Brewer's skill at capturing the tranquil nature of a scene have made his landscape paintings well known..  Though initially established as a landscape painter, his reputation as a skilled portrait painter brought him numerous commissions.  Brewer painted the portraits of presidents, such as Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin Roosevelt.  He also painted the official portraits of governors from Minnesota and ten other states. Brewer’s other clients came from the ranks of high society.