Rediscovering S. P. Rolt Triscott: Monhegan Artist and Photographer Richard H. Malone, Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. Published with the Monhegan Museum Paperback, $30, ISBN 978-0-88448-240-6 10 x 8.5, 220 pages, color plates and B&W Art / Biography

"This is a thorough and thoughtful rediscovery of an important painter of national and local interest. . . . This book will hopefully generate more study, particularly analyses of Triscott's work alongside that of his contemporaries. It will be an indispensable source for future scholars."
—Marnie Coleman, Maine in Print

"On his own, or in collaboration with others, Shettleworth has been responsible for an impressive array of informative, carefully researched and attractive volumes, the latest of which is Rediscovering S. P. Rolt Triscott: Monhegan Artist and Photographer. The new volume . . . meets the usual standards and introduces the student and scholar to a forgotten though once influential and highly skilled artist . . . this study succeeds admirably in setting Triscott in his rightful place in the local and national art scene. . . . Though often somber in tone . . . the artist's paintings are strong, compelling, and unique for his time and place. By contrast, the photographs, though often used for composition in his paintings, are bright and uplifting even in fog and surf. It seems clear that Triscott will now be remembered not as a shadowy Monhegan pioneer and artistic footnote, but as a masterful painter and photographer."
—William David Barry, Maine Sunday Telegram

"The heft of this book comes from the signature smartness and organizational clarity of Shettleworth, and even more so from the reproduced black-and-white photographs, which are as painterly as any of the elegantly crafted watercolors in the first half of the book . . . the results are portraits that teach us something about a painter's eye that is thoroughly entrenched in and beholden to line, composition, and drama . . . both the watercolors and photos-of the cliffy, sea-smoked, rambly scenes well-known to Monhegan denizens-point directly to Triscott as the forerunner to formidable American artists of the day. . . . If the book and exhibition historically reinstates Triscott among his better-known peers, his biographers undoubtedly will feel-and rightly-that justice has been served."
—Alicia Anstead, Bangor Daily News

"Of particular interest is the fascinating relationship of photography to painting. Many pairings highlight the ways in which the artist worked directly from photographs (interesting to note that a critic once described a Triscott painting as being 'hopelessly literal and painfully conscientious,' perhaps a result of his photographic eye). . . . Triscott turned out many a memorable watercolor and canvas (a few of his oils are reproduced). Going by the fine reproductions, one traces the evolution of a neat representational style that loosened up when the artist arrived in Maine. In addition to Monhegan, Mount Desert, Ogunquit, and other coastal Maine motifs, there are panoramic views of river valleys in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and delicate watercolors of England and France. Outstanding among the Monhegan sheets are several winter landscapes, which must stand among the first ever painted of the island at this time of year . . ."
—Carl Little, Working Waterfront/Inter-Island News

In 1892, British expatriate Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott (1846-1925), a highly esteemed watercolorist in Boston, visited Monhegan for the first time. Enamored with its beauty and remoteness, he returned to purchase a home, added a studio, and in 1902 moved permanently to the island, becoming the first artist to live year-round on Monhegan.

A classic nineteenth-century watercolorist in the English tradition, Triscott continued to paint, but also did photography, painted in oils, and produced hand-tinted photographs. He took delight in his garden and his cats, served tea in the afternoon to a few select friends, and gradually severed his ties with the cosmopolitan art world in favor of life on a rugged island ten miles out to sea. He continued painting in the style which suited him best, but as public taste turned to impressionism, expressionism, and modernism, his masterful landscapes and beautifully composed studies were largely ignored by the larger art world.

In the years following his death, many of his paintings were given away or sold for just a few dollars, but some remained in islanders' homes and he was considered by some locals to have been one of the most important members of Monhegan's celebrated art community. In the 1970s Richard Malone began collecting Triscott's paintings and undertook researching his life. His biographical essay on Triscott forms the core of this book, with 50 paintings shown in full color. More than 60 black and white photographs of Monhegan, printed from Triscott's glass plates, are accompanied by an essay by Earle Shettleworth on Triscott's photography. An exhibit of Triscott's work will open at the Monhegan Musum in summer 2002 and moves to the Portland Museum of Art in the fall.