Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott was born January 4, 1846 in Gosport, England. He was one of five children and had a genteel middle class upbringing. Triscott studied civil engineering. His artistic training in painting was at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors in London under Philip Mitchell. In 1871 Triscott moved to America and settled in Worcester, Massachusetts where he was a partner in a civil engineering firm. In 1874 he began selling paintings from his office in Worcester. During the 1870s Triscott surveyed land throughout New England.
In 1881 Triscott had a one man show at the Boston Art Club. His style of painting with fluent washes of transparent color, though a change from the accepted norm, was well received. Triscott worked as a painting teacher during this time and it is believed his students included Winslow Homer, Sears Gallagher, William J. Bixbee, Woodbridge Gee, Melbourne H. Hardwick, Charles Copeland, William Ladd Taylor, and Robert Henri.
Triscott became quite active in the art world and showed regularly at the Boston Art Club, the American Watercolor Society in New York, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Gallery of J. Eastman Chase. In 1885, he was one of the founding members of the Boston Society of Water Color Painters.
Triscott began visiting Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine in the early 1890’s. The artist purchased a large lot of land which he sold off for cottages in his later years. Every year Triscott increasingly spent more time on the island eventually staying there year round. On April 28, 1894 Triscott was naturalized in Boston. He returned to Monhegan Island and continued to show his work and receive exceptional reviews. S.P. R. Triscott died on April 15, 1925 on Monhegan Island.
From AskArt Archives/American Art Review
