"Rediscovering Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott"
2002-12-14 until 2003-03-09
Portland Museum of Art
Portland, ME, USA

The Portland Museum of Art is pleased to join in partnership with the Monhegan Museum to spotlight the achievements of painter and photographer Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott (1846-1925). This special exhibition features more than 60 examples of Triscottís work-including watercolors, photographs, and a few rare oils-that span the breadth of his career. Notable among them are exquisitely rendered watercolors that capture all seasons of the year on Monhegan Island, where Triscott made his home from 1902 until the end of his life. Rediscovering Samuel Peter Rolt Tricott was organized by the Monhegan Museum on the centenary of Triscott's settling on Monhegan.

British by birth, Samuel Triscott emigrated to the United States in 1871 and settled in Massachusetts where he supported himself as an engineer while spending all of his free time painting. Around 1880, he took a studio in Boston where he was able to devote himself full time to his art. Watercolor was his primary medium and his meticulously detailed, sensitively rendered paintings quickly drew the attention of critics and connoisseurs alike. At the peak of his career, his work was compared favorably with such contemporaries as John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer, with whom he was acquainted.

In 1892, Triscott first visited Monhegan Island with his student and friend Sears Gallagher. Captivated by the islandís unique and unblemished beauty, the artist returned regularly over the next decade. In 1902, he made Monhegan his permanent home, rarely leaving the island and becoming its first year-round resident artist. Although he continued to work in a style rooted in the 19th century, he incorporated photography into his creative process, using the medium both as an inspiration for his paintings and as a creative end in itself.

This exhibition is accompanied by the publication of the book Rediscovering S. P. Rolt Triscott: Monhegan Artist and Photographer. This handsomely illustrated book features enlightening essays by Richard H. Malone and Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., and is available in the Museum Shop for $30.

Image:
Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott (United States, born England 1846-1925),
Untitled (Monhegan), ca. 1902-1912,
watercolor, 11 3/8 x 9 inches.
Gift of Christopher P. Monkhouse and
Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr.
in honor of Sally W. Rand, 1999.12.2.
Photograph by Dennis Griggs.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Maine

Other Important Exhibitions in United States