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PARSONS, Arthur Wilde, RWA.* PDF Print E-mail
He was present at the Inaugural Meeting when at the age of 58 he had already achieved considerable fame as a painter in oils and watercolour of marine and coastal subjects. Of a quiet and reserved nature, he sported a beard and smoked a pipe and is the first artist to present the Tribe with one of his works. As a boy he was educated privately, but as an artist he was entirely self taught. He was born in Fishponds House where his father, who was a doctor, ran a private mental asylum and later, in Clifton, a Dispensary. His aunt was married to the Rev. Ralph Wilde who was uncle to both Oscar Wilde and Arthur Wilde Parsons. Arthur married in 1873 and lived in Hampton Park where he had a studio which he shared with his brother Featherstonehaugh, a portrait painter. He was of independent means and able to devote his life to painting. In 1908 he spent some time in Italy, touring, painting and studying. He came back with an extensive portfolio. In 1909 his first pictures were accepted by the Royal Academy. Fifteen of his pictures are in the Bristol Art Gallery. In the Wigwam is a magnificent watercolour of Waves breaking over Cornish Cliffs, over the entrance door is an oil painting The Fight of the Angel Gabriel and in the Bongie room a large watercolour painting of HMS Formidable which ended her life as a nautical training school moored off Portishead. Two other well known pictures by Wilde Parsons The visit of Queen Elizabeth to Bristol and The opening of the Royal Edward Dock are in St. Nicholas Church Museum. In the Bristol Commercial Rooms is (or was) a large painting of John Guy`s expedition leaving for the New World. Queen Mary, who admired his work, invited him to paint a number of miniature pictures for the Royal Doll`s House at Windsor. He was no mean singer, being a chorister at All Saints’ Church, Clifton, and on occasion he would sing his favourite song Asleep on the Deep. Charles Thomas wrote of him “His kindly and genial personality endeared him to his brothers of the brush”. A photograph of him, bearded, bespectacled and smoking a pipe is in the studio at the foot of the stairs. (Cecil Broome)