According to the Gospel of Luke, the road to Emmaus appearance is one of the early post-resurrection appearances of Jesus after his crucifixion and the discovery of the empty tomb. Both the meeting on the road to Emmaus and the subsequent supper at Emmaus, depicting the meal that Jesus had with two disciples after the encounter on the road, have been popular subjects in art.

George Washington Brownlow, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland in 1835, third son of Stephen Brownlow (c1807-10 July 1883), a cordwainer (bootmaker) and his wife Maria (1810-1879), but was not baptised at Bulmer, Essex until 21 December 1859. In 1841 the family were living at Thompson Street, All Saints, Newcastle, 32 year old Stephen and 31 year old Maria, with children Stephen 12, James 10, Washington 6 and William 2.

By 1851 they had moved to Wesley Street, All Saints' with the addition of two more children Mary 8 and Robert 2, they were all born at Newcastle. George received early tuition from William Bell Scott (1811-1890), principal of the government School of Art in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and then enrolled at Royal Academy schools and by 1860 was exhibiting widely.

In 1861 George was a 25 year old artist, boarding at 14 Anderson Street, Chelsea, London, the home of the Hudson family and in 1871 a visitor at Stanley House, King's Road, Chelsea, the home of the Veitch family. George Washington Brownlow was particularly renowned for his genre paintings with children in oils, but also painted landscapes and portraits and often painted scenes in Scotland and Ireland. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from South Parade, Queen's Elm, Brompton in 1860:

• 'Last Century's...at Epworth Church, Lincolnshire'
• 'The Mother's Lesson...Wishaw, Lancashire', from 14 Anderson Street, King's Road, Chelsea in 1861
• 'A Claddagh Fisherman's Fireside', from Fern Lodge, Belchamp Walter, Sudbury, Suffolk in 1865
• 'Straw Platting School in Essex', from 15 Great James Street, Bedford Row in 1866
• 'A Findon Fisherman's Fireside', from Fern Lodge, Belchamp Walter, Sudbury, Suffolk in 1869
• 'The First Lesson in Straw Platting', in 1872 'The Last Stile Home' and in 1875
• 'The Sunny Hours of Childhood' also showing at the Royal Scottish Academy 1859 and the Royal Association for the Promotion of Fine Arts in Scotland and elsewhere.

In 1866 the pulpit of Walter Belchamp church in Essex was adorned with the pictures of the four evangelist by Brownlow and his engravings are included in a series of Fulcher's Ladies' Sudbury Pocket Books.

George Washington Brownlow died at the residence of John Cox Lynch, Esq., surgeon, of 16 Sepulchre Street, Sudbury, Suffolk, on 23 July 1876, aged 41, and he was buried in Walter Belchamp churchyard on 26 July 1876. The following year a memorial window to his memory was placed near to his seat in Belchamp Walter church, by Samuel Raymond.

George's artist brother was Stephen Brownlow (1828-1896), originally a cordwainer, who took evening classes at Newcastle’s Government School of Art and also became a well-known artist at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War and served as president of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which created and ratified the Constitution of the United States and the American federal government. Washington has been called the "Father of his Country" for his manifold leadership in the nation's founding.

*BROWNLOW, George Washington (1835-1876) Genre, portrait, landscape and religious painter in oil; modeller. He was born at NEWCASTLE the son of a cordwainer, and received his first tuition in art at the Government School of Design in the town under William Bell Scott (q.v.). At the age of twenty he was awarded a gold medal for his work as a student, and as a result of this achievement came to the notice of his future principal patron, the Rev. J. St. Clere Raymond, of Belchamp Hall, Belchamp Walter, in Essex. The first portrait painted by Brownlow was of Raymond, and when his patron some time later succeeded to the Belchamp estate he induced his protégé to settle in a cottage at Belchamp Walter. Brownlow meanwhile had enrolled as a student at the Royal Academy Schools, and made such good progress that by 1858 he was exhibiting at both the British Institution and the Suffolk Street Gallery. By 1860 he had commenced exhibiting at the Royal Academy, remaining a regular exhibitor

Another notable name in our list of deceased painters is George Washington Brownlow, who was born in Newcastle, but passed a great part of his life in the pursuit of his art in Scotland and Ireland, and his latter years in the south of England. He was a regular exhibitor in the rooms of the Royal Academy, and his works are beautiful examples of delicate finish and of refined and truthful colour. They are principally cottage interiors, though his landscapes are rare examples of conscientious study and grasp of nature in her more peaceful moods, and his portraits are perfect works of art. Good as his accomplished work is, we doubtless would have had from him some greater and more widely known display of his skill, had he not unhappily been cut off in the prime of his life and in the full and matured exercise of his powers, He died at Sudbury, Suffolk, in 1876, and a stained glass window has been erected to his memory in the church there by one of his friends and patrons. Its execution was most appropriately entrusted to his fellow-townsman and brother artist, the late Mr. Wailes

Fire on Sunday last on the premises of Robert Collar, grocer and straw plait dealer of Gt Yeldham, extensive damage was done, it is supposed to be from a spark from a candle, we regret to say quantities of straw plait were destroyed, there was damaged to £40 of uninsured goods although the premises were insured.