Two men hang by ropes on the deck of a ship. The deck is swamped with water. One man is barefoot.
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Make Fast

Briscoe, Arthur

1929

Artwork Information

  • Title:

    Make Fast

  • Artist:

    Briscoe, Arthur

  • Artist Bio:

    British, 1873–1943

  • Date:

    1929

  • Medium:

    Etching

  • Dimensions:

    14 3/8 x 9 3/4 inches

  • Credit Line:

    Wichita Art Museum, Gift of Lynne and Bill Tinker

  • Object Number:

    2020.16

  • Display:

    Not Currently on Display

About the Artwork

British etcher Arthur Briscoe studied at London’s Slade School of Art and Paris’ Académie Julian. He spent the rest of his life on boats, becoming the most prominent British marine artist of the 20th century. He owned his own cutter which he used to traverse the Essex coast and also worked aboard commercial vessels. Like many other European and American printmakers of the period, Briscoe served in WWI. Although Briscoe is British, he has connections with other printmakers in the WAM collection—including Joseph Pennell, Martin Lewis, and John A. Noble—who are famous for their images of ships and shipbuilding. Pennell, one of the most important printmakers of the first decades of the 20th century, taught Briscoe at The Slade School. Hold Fast, like most of Briscoe’s work, features hardworking sailors struggling to control a ship.