Ernest Briggs Biography

Ernest Briggs (1866-1913) was born in Broughty Ferry, the youngest of five children of Henry Currer Briggs and Catherine Shepherd. The Briggs family were colliery owners in Yorkshire, but Ernest’s father also became involved in the jute industry in Dundee, where, in the 1860s, he was a partner in the firm of Thomson Shepherd and Co.

Owing to poor health, Ernest was unable to join his brothers in the coal industry but the family’s wealth allowed him to pursue his interest in art.

Author and illustrator of 'Angling and Art in Scotland' (1912), Briggs excelled at painting moving water. In the book, he tells us that “it was at the age of thirteen, when we boys were given leave of absence for three weeks, to be spent in a fishing expedition in the enchanted lands of Galloway, that I became entirely imbued with the delights of angling.” The book contained several Galloway illustrations including 'Trout Fishing in Galloway', which was shown at the Royal Academy in 1903. In December 1908 there was a solo exhibition of Brigg's work at the Fine Art Society, London, entitled 'Fishermen’s Haunts in Galloway and the Highlands'. The exhibition contained over 20 Galloway views, many of them of the River Ken about Earlston Linn and other spots near Dalry.

A legacy in 1909 allowed Ernest to build a home in Scotland, Dalbeathie House near Dunkeld, where he died in 1913.