英国里维埃尔的父亲,威廉·河(1806 - 1876),是多年的教义切尔滕纳姆大学,然后一位美术老师牛津大学。英国人是在切尔滕纳姆大学和牛津大学,1867年,他带着他的程度。他的艺术训练他负债几乎完全是他的父亲。他的叔叔亨利·帕森斯河(1811 - 1888)也指出watercolourist,展示工作皇家水彩画学会、伦敦和伯明翰皇家社会的艺术家.

他第一次出现在照片英国的机构1857年,他表现出三个工作皇家艺术学院,但直到1863年,他成为了学院的定期撰稿人展览。那一年他为代表的前夕西班牙无敌舰队,1864年罗密欧与朱丽叶。然而,这种主题不吸引他,他在1865年开始,与猎鹿犬睡觉,猪的一系列绘画占据了自己的余生的。 在漫长的采访朋友们每年名为“我如何油漆动物”,河解释的一些实用性绘画驯服和野生动物:

“我一直是一个伟大的情人的狗但我在他们工作这么多,我已经厌倦了关于我的。但是,你永远不能画一只狗,除非你喜欢它。我从来没有从一只狗没有一个很熟悉的人的援助与动物.....牧羊犬,我认为,是最不安分的狗....灰也很不安,所以吗狐狸犬.....油漆野生动物的唯一方法是逐步积累大量的研究和一个伟大的动物本身的知识,才能描述它……我从死去的动物以及油漆的生活。我的身体好.....狮在我的工作室我做了大量的工作在解剖室不时动物园。” 

在他的职业生涯早期,河做了一些标记作为一个插画家,开始穿孔杂志。他被选为一个皇家美术学院的副教授在1878年,和一个皇家学会会员1881年,和接受的程度民法博士1891年在牛津大学。他在选举中以微弱的优势击败了皇家艺术学院1896年总统。他的妻子,玛丽·爱丽丝河(nee多贝尔,1844 - 1931年)在1867年和他结婚,是一个画家,表现出短暂的皇家美术学院在1869 - 70年。在他死后她了大博物馆与他的四个图纸(和一个蚀刻国王饮料),补充了数十个打印后他的工作安置,特别是弗雷德里克Stacpoole和威廉•亨利•西蒙斯。艺术家和他的妻子有七个孩子,五个儿子和两个女儿。一个儿子,休今年将河(1869 - 1956),成为了一个肖像画家。

Briton's father, William Rivière (1806–1876), was for some years drawing-master at Cheltenham College, and then an art teacher at theUniversity of Oxford. Briton was educated at Cheltenham College and Oxford, where he took his degree in 1867. For his art training he was indebted almost entirely to his father. His paternal uncle Henry Parsons Rivière (1811–1888) was also a noted watercolourist, exhibiting works at the Royal Watercolour Society, London and the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.

His first pictures appeared at the British Institution, and in 1857 he exhibited three works at the Royal Academy, but it was not until 1863 that he became a regular contributor to the Academy exhibitions. In that year he was represented by The eve of the Spanish Armada, and in 1864 by a Romeo and Juliet. However, subjects of this kind did not attract him long, for in 1865 he began, with Sleeping Deerhound, a series of paintings of animal-subjects which occupied much of the rest of his life. In a lengthy interview in Chums Boys Annual, entitled "How I paint animals", Rivière explained some of the practicalities of painting both tame and wild animals:

"I have always been a great lover of dogs but I have worked at them so much that I've grown tired of having them about me. However, you can never paint a dog unless you are fond of it. I never work from a dog without the assistance of a man who is well acquainted with animals..... Collies, I think, are the most restless dogs....greyhounds are also very restless, and so are fox terriers..... The only way to paint wild animals is to gradually accumulate a large number of studies and a great knowledge of the animal itself, before you can paint its picture...... I paint from dead animals as well as from live ones. I have had the body of a fine lioness in my studio..... I have done a great deal of work in the dissecting rooms at the Zoological Gardens from time to time."

Early in his career, Rivière made some mark as an illustrator, beginning with Punch magazine. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1878, and a Royal Academician in 1881, and received the degree of Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford in 1891. He was narrowly defeated in the election for President of the Royal Academy in 1896. His wife, Mary Alice Rivière (née Dobell; 1844–1931) whom he married in 1867, was a painter and exhibited briefly at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1869–70. After his death she presented the British Museum with four of his drawings (and an etching The king drinks), which complements the dozens of prints made after his work housed there, especially byFrederick Stacpoole and William Henry Simmons. The artist and his wife had seven children; five sons and two daughters. One of the sons,Hugh Goldwin Rivière (1869–1956), became a portraitist.