The Wheel. 1927. Etching. Hurst 196. 9 x 10 (sheet 11 3/8 x 16 3/4). Trial proof 5, apart from the edition of 75. Illustrated: Print Collector's Quarterly 25 (1938): 292. A rich impression with tonal wiping. Printed on the full sheet of cream laid paper with deckle edges. Signed and annotated 'trial' and 'trial 5' in pencil. Arthur Briscoe was a painter in oil and watercolor and etcher of marine subjects.
Arthur Briscoe was a painter in oil and watercolor and etcher of marine subjects
In 1922, after a meeting with the etcher James McBey, Briscoe returned to etching once more producing plates of some of his sea sketches. The two artists sailed together in Briscoe's, forty-ton yacht, the "Golden Vanity." Briscoe produced 189 etchings dealing with the sea and the sailing ship. His works were eagerly sought after and purchased by collectors throughout the 1920s and 1930s. His work was always technically accurate and very evocative of the last years of square-rigged sailing ships. Briscoe left an invaluable historical record of the workings of the last great commercial vessels.
An extensive collection of Briscoe's work is available on the Allisnon Gallery, Inc. website.
