Though Matilda Browne’s professional associations reached well beyond Old Lyme—she spent the majority of her career in New York and Greenwich—it was her connection to the impressionist colony in Old Lyme that established Browne as a member of the group responsible for shifting the landscape of American art. Browne was born in Newark, New Jersey, and had the good fortune to grow up in a house next door to famed landscape painter, Thomas Moran (1837-1926). As Browne showed sufficient interest and ability, Moran allowed her to experiment with his own brushes and colors. Evidence of her intrinsic talent was readily apparent. She exhibited one of her early efforts, a floral study, at the National Academy of Design when she was only twelve years old.

After Moran, Browne studied under a series of accomplished tutors—Eleanor and Kate Greatorex (1854-1917, 1851-1913), Frederick Freer (1849-1908), Charles Melville Dewey (1849-1937), Julian Dupré (1851-1910) in Barbizon, Henry Bisbing (1849-1933) in Holland, and, perhaps most significantly given her fondness for animal painting, Carleton Wiggins (1848-1932). As her career accelerated, she exhibited with and won awards from the National Academy of Design, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, and the Greenwich Art Association. In addition, her works were included in the exhibitions of the American Water Color Society, the Society of Animal Painters and Sculptors, and the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, of which she was a founder.