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Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott was born on January 4, 1846 in Gosport, England, where he studied both civil engineering and painting. While in London, he studied under Philip Mitchell and at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolors. He came to the United States in 1871 and initially worked as a surveyor in Worcester, MA. After performing survey work across Massachusetts for several years, he eventually settled in Boston, taking an art studio at the corner of Washington and Winter Streets. A specialist in watercolors, he became an influential teacher in this medium. He was a member of the Boston Art Club and the Boston Society of Watercolor Painters.

During the 1880s and 1890s “Trissy” exhibited paintings of a wide variety of New England subjects. He exhibited at the Boston Art Club (1880-1905), the American Watercolor Society (1898), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1892-1893), the Brooklyn Art Association (1881-1882), and the Art Institute of Chicago (1889-1902). Triscott exhibited three paintings at the Newton Club from December 9th to December 17, 1896, including: In the Woods, The Fishing Beach, Monehgan, and Sunrise, Monehgan which was offered for $250.

In the 1890s, Triscott purchased a hilltop home off the coast of Maine on Monhegan Island where he lived for the remainder of his life. From his home studio, he continued to produce watercolors and made them available for sale to summer visitors. Triscott and William Claus made extensive use of artistic photography on Monhegan, providing the illustrations for A. G. Pettigill’s article, “Monhegan: Historical and Picturesque” in New England Magazine, September, 1889. For the next two decades, Triscott commercially promoted and sold his photographs of the cliffs and surf of Monhegan.

On April 15, 1925, Triscott was found dead from a heart attack in his home by a neighbor. He was 79 years of age at the time of his passing and left behind a brother from Heathfield, England. He is buried at the Monhegan Cemetery, Monhegan, ME.

His work has been preserved at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), the Portland Museum of Art (Portland, ME), the Farnsworth Art Museum (Farnsworth, ME), and the Smith College Museum of Art (North Hampton, MA).

Image of Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott

Gravestone

References
Independent research by the authors
New Hampshire Scenery
Who Was Who in American Art