Brush was a pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme (Gérôme, Jean-Léon) in Paris and became a member of the National Academy of Design, New York, and of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. From 1883 onward he attracted much attention by his paintings of North American Indians, his “Moose Hunt,” “Aztec King,” and “Mourning Her Brave” achieving great popularity and showing the strong influence of Gérôme. These were followed by picture portraits, particularly of mother and child, largely suggestive of the work of the Dutch, Flemish, and German masters, carefully arranged as to line and mass and worked out in great detail.

Brush received gold medals from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1897) and Paris Exposition (1900).