Alfred Parsons - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

"ALFRED PARSONS (1847-1920), English painter, was born at Beckington, Som., Dec. 2 1847. He was educated privately, and in 1865 entered the General Post-Office as a clerk, but after two years his taste for painting decided him to adopt an artistic career. He was preeminently a painter of flowers and gardens. He was also interested in the designing of gardens, and was a judge at the Chelsea flower show. His picture of an orchard, " When Nature Painted All Things Gay," was purchased by the Chantrey fund in 1887, and he was a frequent exhibitor not only at the Royal Academy but at the Grosvenor and New Gallery exhibitions. Among the various special exhibitions held of his work was one of scenes from the Warwickshire Avon (1885). As an illustrator Parsons took a very high place, much of his work appearing in Harper's Magazine, while among the books he illustrated are She Stoops to Conquer, Herrick's Poems (with E. A. Abbey), and The Danube, from the Black Forest to the Black Sea (with F. D. Millet). He died at Broadway, Worcs., Jan. 16 1920.