Setting a jib sail

Arthur John Trevor Briscoe (1873–1943) was a marine printmaker and artist. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and studied at the Slade under Frederick Brown. He sailed, studied, and recorded a working life at sea. In 1906 he had his first exhibition of watercolours at the Modern Gallery in Bond Street and went on to have several exhibitions including at the Royal Academy. Briscoe was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, wrote and illustrated ‘A Handbook on Sailing’, and made illustrations for the Illustrated London News. In 1908 Briscoe had a fishing vessel, The Golden Vanity, built for him as a travelling studio so he could follow fissing vessels and record the daily life of the sailors. His wife Mary and their friends were part of the crew and they sailed regularly in the southern part of the North Sea until the First World War.