PARKER, Henry Perlee

1795 - 1873

Henry Perlee Parker was born at Devonport, Devon on 15 March and baptised at Stoke Damerel, Devon on 15 June 1795, son of Robert Parker, a teacher of marine and mechanical drawing at Plymouth Dockyard, and his wife Mary Elizabeth. He originally intended for the medical profession but was instructed in drawing by his father. In 1815 he married Amy Morfey of Woodbridge, Suffolk and set up as a portrait-painter but, meeting with little success, in 1816 moved North and settled at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and exhibited in London from 1817. At Newcastle he was sponsored by two wealthy men, Charles John Brandling (4 February 1769-February 1826) and his brother-in-law, Walter Fawkes, a Yorkshire man and, with other artists, he inaugurated the first Fine Art Exhibition in the North of England in 1822 which led to the founding of the North of England Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts. In 1829 he was elected an honorary member of the Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. He left Newcastle in 1842 and became Drawing Master at Wesley's College, Sheffield but on the death of his first wife in 1844, he settled in London. In 1846 took a second wife Mary Ann Barrett (1814-1865) and in 1851, a 56-year-old artist painter, living at Cambridge Road, Hammersmith, London with a 36-year-old wife, who was born at Lancaster. He did not confine himself to portraits, but painted historical and marine subjects, and excelled in smugglers and exhibited at the Suffolk Fine Arts Association at Ipswich in 1850, three works 'A Shady Nook at Ivy Bridge, in Devonshire', 'Sun Dispelling a Mist with Smugglers Landing' and 'Smugglers landing their Cargo by Moonlight'. After the death of his second wife in 1865, he married again, at Kensington in 1867, Amelia Wagstaff (1808-1872) and in 1871, a 76-year-old retired artist, living at Blenheim Villas, New Road, Hammersmith, London with his 62-year-old wife Amelia. Henry Perlee Parker died at 1 Blenheim Villas, Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush, London on 9 November 1873. He had fourteen children including Henry Raphael Hyde Parker (1829-1886) who was one of the executors.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1826 391 Shipwrecked Smugglers: Storm clearing off
1827 206 A Covenanter-Vide Old Mortality
1830 286 Portrait of the Rev. H. Cotes, returning from Fishing
from 28 Newcastle Street, Strand, London and Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1834 155 Fishermen departing for the Night
1835 102 Loitering Bait Gatherers
1836 224 Pitmen at Play, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1837 282 Wives and Bairns waiting the return of Pitmen from work
from 51 Rathbone Place, Oxford Street, London and Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1839 583 Grace Darling and her parents...
1840 OR30 A Study from Nature
from Glossop Road, Sheffield
1842 558 Sir Francis Chantrey, when a boy - miniature
1845 570 Settling for the Cargo
1846 295 The Tinker
from 42 Newman Street, Oxford Street, London
1849 213 Shipwrecked Smugglers
from 25 Sussex Terrace, Cambridge Road, Hammersmith
1850 608 The Smugglers at Home after a successful Cruize[sic]
1852 596 The Mouse
1853 857 Morning on the Beach-Arrival of Fishing Boats
1854 51 Waiting on the Beach
1855 55 1343 Uncertain about the Weather
1857 267 Astonishing a Native
1859 887 Frest Fish and Lobster Sauce

---

Works by This Artist