The Orator

Hurst 158.

A dramatic piece showing an Orator in the ‘Speakers Corner’ of Hyde Park on the eve of the 1926 British General Strike. The strike was started to prevent wage reductions for coal miners and other laborers upset with their governments' reduction in wages and worsening conditions. The strike also included dockers, printers, power station workers and transport workers, thus Briscoe's interest in the subject.

Arthur Briscoe (1873-1943) was a British painter, watercolorist and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He received his formal art training at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and Julian's Atelier in Paris, and has his first solo exhibition in 1906 at the Modern Gallery in London.