Arthur John Trevor Briscoe
English, 1873-1943
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Arthur John Trevor Briscoe was an English artist. Educated at Shrewsbury School, Arthur Briscoe displayed an aptitude for drawing that led him to the Slade and then the Académie Julian in Paris. On his return from France, Briscoe was commissioned to illustrate editions of Keats and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, but he soon abandoned the world of illustration for that of marine painting. A growing interest in the work of Philip Wilson Steer led Briscoe to the Essex coast where he purchased a 3-ton cutter, the Doris and became a founding member of the Blackwater Sailing Club. Briscoe married Mabel Shawyer in 1901 and their son William was born in 1903.
His passion for yachting continued and the family spent eight or nine months of the year cruising around Northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands with Briscoe constantly sketching and painting in watercolours and oils. In 1906, Briscoe held a one-man exhibition of thirty-five watercolours at the Modern Gallery in Bond St., called Round the North Sea and Zuyder Zee (see lots 69 and 72), which established his reputation and led to further shows at galleries across London.
He spent the First World War as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy's Auxiliary Patrol, and his post-war years were spent in London, East Anglia and St. Mawes with Briscoe continuing to paint until he suffered a stroke in 1940. Influenced by Vermeer and the Van der Veldes, amongst others, he studied his subjects carefully in order to understand the workmanship involved resulting in the combination of technical accuracy with an aesthetically pleasing, impressionistic effect that is characteristic of all his work.