Franklin D. Briscoe is best known for his masterful renderings of marine views. He established a successful painting career and was highly regarded as a competent marine painter during his lifetime. He was a versatile artist whose work included history painting and portraiture as well as seascapes.

Briscoe was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1844. At the age of four his family moved to Philadelphia, where Briscoe he trained with eminent marine artist Thomas Moran (1860) and in Europe. He studied the masters in London, Paris and other continental cities and by the age of 25 was considered a proficient landscape and marine painter. Traveling by ship all over the world many times, Briscoe found many marine subjects during extended voyages. In 1885 he painted a major historical mural The Battle of Gettysburg (whereabouts now unknown) that measured 13 feet tall x 230 feet long (ten panels). For more information regarding this artist see 300 Years of American Art, volume 1, page 401 and Who Was Who in American Art, vol. 1, p. 445. Briscoe exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Brooklyn Art Association.

He remained in Philadelphia throughout his life and died there in 1903.