Elizabeth Parsons (1831 - 1897) was a professional artist, who created many delightful landscapes in water-colour, oil and drawings. The State Library of Victoria has around thirty of her works on-line, many of the St Kilda area (1) however Elizabeth also has a number of works of Berwick, which was then a country town and where the family stayed during summer.
View from Wilson's Hill, Berwick, 1878 by Elizabeth Parsons.
Image: National Gallery of Victoria A35-1976
This is a very short history of her life and works, most of which I have summarised from the book More than a memory: the art of Elizabeth Parsons by Veronica Filmer. This is the catalogue of an exhibition of Elizabeth Parson's work held at the Geelong Gallery in 2004. The exhibition was also curated by Veronica Filmer. It's a lovely book, I found a copy at an on-line second-hand book seller and it is well worth tracking down, however the Geelong Galley has recently digitised the book and it is available on their website, here https://www.geelonggallery.org.au/whats-on/exhibitions/elizabeth-parsons
Elizabeth was born to William and Elizabeth (nee Keens) Warren on November 27, 1831. The Keens were market gardeners and William and Elizabeth and their children lived on the family property after their marriage in 1820. Elizabeth (the younger) found employment as a governess and in the late 1850s began art lessons with instructors including Thomas Miles Richardson and James Duffield Harding.
Elizabeth Parson
Her mother, who died in March 1867, left Elizabeth an annuity as long as she remained unmarried and this gave her some freedom to travel around England on sketching trips. It was on one of these trips that she met George Parsons (1830 - 1920) who was the manager of the Lizard Serpentine Marble Works. George had trained as a surveyor and was a widower with two sons, George and Cecil. Elizabeth and George married on October 28, 1868. Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter, Adeline, in August 1869. 1869 was also significant for Elizabeth as she exhibited seven works in the Society of Female Artists exhibition, her first major exhibition. Elizabeth exhibited under the name of Mrs George Parsons.
In 1870 the family decided to migrate to Australia and they arrived in Melbourne on May 20, 1870 and their son Henry was born the same year. In 1872 another son, Warren, was born followed by two more sons, Noel in 1875, Jonathon in 1876 and a still-born baby in 1879. Elizabeth lost no time in establishing herself as an artist in her new country and she exhibited in the Victorian Academy of Art exhibition in November 1870. The Argus had a two part review of this exhibition, which you can read here and here. The Argus said that there were three water-colour landscapes of conspicuous merit by Mrs G. Parsons (2).
There was also a more detailed review of Elizabeth Parson's work in The Argus of December 26, 1870, which Ms Filmer quoted in her book (3) and I have reproduced, below.
Praise for Elizabeth Parson's work.
Elizabeth commenced teaching in the early 1870s as well as continuing to exhibit works depicting local landmarks such as the Carlton Gardens and Melbourne University. Around 1873, Elizabeth rented a studio in Flinders Lane and the next year the family moved to a house in Neptune Street, St Kilda. They later moved to Charnwood Road in the same suburb and then to 249 Carlisle Street in Balaclava.
The family also toured the State and scenes from areas such as Mornington, Geelong, Woodend and Berwick featured in Elizabeth's work. Ms Filmer writes that the family spent many summers in Berwick, where they had either leased or brought a small holiday house. From here Elizabeth could make sketching trips into the surrounding district. (4) The picture, below, shows the back of the holiday house in Wilson lane (or Wilson Street as it was actually called). Ms Filmer also writes that from the Berwick house popular locations such as Harkaway and Koo Wee Rup were easily accessed (5). I checked the Shire of Berwick Rate books and neither George or Elizabeth are listed as owning property at Berwick, so they must have rented a house in Berwick.
Wilson lane, Berwick, c. 1876 by Elizabeth Parsons.
Image: More than a memory: the art of Elizabeth Parsons by Veronica Filmer (Geelong Gallery, 2004)
Elizabeth's standing as an artist continued to grow and in December 1874, she was elected to the Victorian Academy of Art Council, which is all the more remarkable as there was much opposition to women taking up public positions of any kind and also that she had the responsibility of a young family to care for and George was often away due to his job as inspector and auditor of the Seymour to Avenel section of the North Eastern railway line. Elizabeth also continued to exhibit and began painting in oils.
In the early 1880s, Elizabeth became more enterprising and published three books - the Drawing book of Australian Landscape - book one covered buildings, book two trees and book three landscapes. Books one and two have been digitised by the State Library of Victoria, here and here and Ms Filmer writes that no trace has been found of the third book, Landscapes (6)
At Berwick, 1882, by Elizabeth Parsons. This illustration was originally published in her book, Drawing book of Australian Landscape - Part 1 - buildings.
Image: National Gallery of Australia Image NGA 86.1996.
The 1880s saw Elizabeth continue to exhibit in the annual Victorian Academy of Arts shows, the Sydney Art Society exhibition, Victorian Jubilee Exhibition of 1884, amongst other shows. In 1886 she joined the newly formed Australian Artist's Association along with other artists such as Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder. The first exhibition of this group was reported on in the Melbourne newspapers, see below and you can read Elizabeth's review, below.
Praise for Elizabeth Parson's work at the inaugural Australian Artist's Association exhibition.
Elizabeth was also a member of two social clubs - the Buonarotti Club, whose members were mainly young artists (7) and the Stray Leaves Club, which was active from 1889 to 1892 and often met at the Parson's home in Balaclava. Emma Minnie Boyd (nee A'Beckett, 1858 - 1936) was also a member of the Stray Leaves Club. Ms Filmer writes that Emma Minnie Boyd and Elizabeth Parsons, exhibited together from the mid 1870s, had stylistic similarities and that Elizabeth may have been something of a mentor to Emma (8). The A'Becketts owned The Grange property at Harkaway, the town just north of Berwick, so it is likely that they also socialised when the Parsons were at Berwick.
At Berwick, 1882, by Elizabeth Parsons. This illustration was originally published in her book, Drawing book of Australian Landscape - Part 1 - buildings.
Image: National Gallery of Australia Image NGA 86.2250
From 1889 Elizabeth decided to retire and sold many of her works at a sale in 1890 and she held another sale in 1896. You can read the coverage of the 1896 sale in The Age of July 17, 1896, here. By this time Elizabeth was suffering from breast cancer and she died May 28, 1897. She is buried in the St Kilda Cemetery, as is her husband, George, who died January 19, 1920.
There were periodic exhibitions of Elizabeth Parson's works after her death, mainly instigated by her daughter Adeline, and also one in 1920, which Ms Filmer said reignited interest in Elizabeth and her art (9). The Herald reviewed this exhibition, you can read it here and it is transcribed, below.
The review of Elizabeth Parson's 1920 retrospective exhibition.
Mid-Victorian Memories by A. Colquhoun
An exhibition of 65 paintings in water-colors by the late Elizabeth Parsons (Mrs George Parsons) was opened today at the Decoration Galleries, Collins street. Mrs Parsons occupied a prominent place in Victorian art during the seventies and eighties, and her work was accepted not merely as that of a talented woman painter but as an equal of the leading professional artists of her time and environment. Her manner of using water-color was direct and forceful, free from tricky manipulation of any kind, and generally characterised by a uniform sincerity of purpose. In the present collection, which ranges over many years, the quality is naturally unequal, but there is no example shown which has not some claim to be considered on its merits as a work of art. Apart from their artistic worthy these pictures have overlooked, and they form, collectively or individually, an impressive record of the great changes which have taken place in Melbourne and its environs during the lust 40 years. Mrs Parsons, who was a woman of intellect and of attractive personality, died in 1897. The exhibition will remain open till March 20. (The Herald, March 15, 1920).
The man who wrote this review, Alexander Colquhoun (1966-1941), was an artist and the art critic who wrote for The Age, as well as The Herald (10). In 1932, he profiled Elizabeth Parsons in his series Australian Artists of the Past for The Age (11). It is an interesting look at her life which addresses the difficulties she face balancing raising a family as a professional artist. It also looks at some of the prejudice she faced initially as a woman, when the art world was dominated by men.
Australian Artists of the Past - Mrs Geo. Parsons. By A.C.
In reviewing the progress of the pioneer artists of Australia one is apt to think of it a a parade fit males only, and in the main the presumption is largely borne out by fact; for in those early colonial days woman had other things to do than fiddle about with paints and brushes; and though she had since amply justified her claim to recognition on a professional footing, the time was not yet ripe in the seventies for her acknowledgment as any thing more serious than a pretty dabbler in the arts. The woman who then sought to make art her vocation in life had many things to reckon with and overcome before attaining even a moderate grip on success, and only one of those was a popular conviction that her only credible sphere of action was in that shrine of early Victorian smugness - "the home."
The perfunctory lady amateur had rather a vogue in Queen Victoria's days but with Mrs. Parsons the case was different, for though the mother of a family and a domesticated woman in the true sense of the term, her art never fell to the level of a hobby or accomplishment, but was, from the first to last, the serious business of her life. She was born at Islesworth, on the Thames, and lived there until she married, at the age of thirty-five, her husband being a widower, whom she met while on a sketching trip in Cornwall, and with whom, a few years later she left England to settle in Australia. Mrs. Parsons, like Glover and Buvelot, brought with her to this country a record of past achievement.
Before her marriage she was a pupil of Thomas Miles Richardson, a man of some note in his day as a painter, engraver and illustrator, and on various occasions an exhibitor at the Royal Academy exhibitions. His landscapes, in oils and water colors, were painted in a bold and original manner, and he had a special gift for "sunset effects," which had then a more popular appeal than in these sophisticated days. Her next mentor in art was James Duffield Harding, celebrated as a teacher, painter and lithographer, and who published several works relating to the practice of his profession, among them "Lessons in Art" and "The Principle and Practice of Art", both of which had a wide circulation. The teaching of this artist had a lasting influence on the work of Elizabeth Parsons, and though in the light of modern opinion some of his methods might be regarded as superficial, Ruskin, in his "Modern Painters," says of him: "Let us refresh ourselves for a moment by looking at the truth; we need not go to Turner - we will go to the man who, next in order, is unquestionably the greatest master of foliage in Europe - J. D. Harding."
On her arrival in Melbourne, Mrs. Parsons lost no time in identifying herself with the art of the new land of her adoption. On 1st December, 1870, an exhibition of paintings by Victorian artists was opened by Viscount Canterbury at the Melbourne Public Library, in which 230 pictures were shown.
Among the artists represented were Buvelot, von Guerard, O.R. Campbell, Chester Earles; and three water colors, which were described as of conspicuous merit, were by Mrs. Geo. Parsons.
Working quietly but assiduously, she again came to the front in a mixed display of pictures held in a well-known art gallery situated somewhere in the doctors' quarters of Collins-street. This was in
1872, and her water colors received further praise from the newspapers as being of outstanding quality. She had now become a recognised personage in the art life of Melbourne, and a constant contributor to the exhibitions of the Victorian Academy of Arts on Eastern Hill, in connection with which body she was elected a member of the council somewhere about 1873. Though voicing the restricted sentiment of the day, some of the sitting members strongly resented the intrusion of a female into their conclaves; probably on the grounds that her proper place was in the "home" minding her children and darning her husband's socks. These found, however, that they had an advance representative of the Australian new woman to deal with, and the interloper was not long in consolidating her position and making her influence felt in the raising of the standard in local art.
Much of her time was spent in teaching, and in this branch of her many activities she established a reputation for method and scrupulous sincerity of purpose which did not tend to lighten her labors. One of her scrupulosities - which is worthy of imitation - was a rigid taboo of all impermanent colors, however brilliant, and as a result pictures painted by her party of fifty years ago still retain their freshness of yesterday, which is a matter for consideration by young artists with a possible fifty years of life still before them.
In the Colonial and Indian Exhibitions held in London in 1886, we read in the Magazine of Art an article by R.A.L. Stevenson, who, after speaking of J. Ford Paterson, refers appreciatively to a painting by Mrs. Parson entitled The Red Bluff as "another work inspired by study of good schools, it is composed and arranged with taste and method, and the color is laid on in good broad washes." In this number of the magazine the pictures reproduced are On the Lerderderg, by John Ford Paterson; The Red Bluff, by E. Parsons; and Luck at Last, by G. K. Ashton. For her work in this exhibition the artist was also warmly commended in a letter from Peter Graham.
While the standard she aimed at and reached was normally a high one, her art was, as is the case with every capable painter, liable to variations and reactions to environment and conditions. Perhaps the best things she produced belong to her mid-Australian period, and her daughter, Adeline, speaking of this, says she believes there was a slight falling off while her children were little and requiring constant care, but it revived later, and almost up to the year of her death, in 1897, kept pace with the progress and development of the times.
Besides contributing freely to general exhibitions, she was one of the first exponents of the "One-Man Show" in Melbourne, one successful display being made about 1885, and another - her latest public demonstration - in 1896. Though a prolific worker conditions did not, as a rule, admit of her travelling very far afield in search of subject matter, and indirectly owing to this a special interest attaches to many of her pictures of near-by rural spots which are to-day marked by tram lines and busy suburban streets.
A pianist of more than average ability she was, in company with John Longstaff, Fred McGubbin, J. G. Gibbs, the writer and other artists of the then younger generation, a member of the then
Buonarotti Club, which, with Cyrus Mason as president, was a source of semi-Bohemian culture in the Melbourne of the late eighties, and, when after some years of activity it ceased to function, Mrs Parsons, who rather leant to functions, and liked to have people about her, started a new society, happily named the "Stray Leaves' primarily designed to bring together and encourage young people interested in art, which purpose it served helpfully for a time when going the way of all such organisations.
Perhaps the happiest lime of the artist's life was when she was associated with the old Academy of Arts, and was one of the group of enthusiasts who, in the face of much that was discouraging, kept the door of art open in this country in the interests of the coming generations. The building, described as "a large bluestone room lit at the top by skylights," was opened in 1874, and cost £800 - an unpretentious beginning, perhaps - but it has borne fruit, and tribute is due from this generation to the memory of the pioneers. Among whom besides Mrs. Parsons were the Hon. H. T. T. a'Beckett, grandfather of the late Penleigh Boyd, J. A. Panton, F, Mackennell, father of Sir Bertram Mackennell ; Buvelot, von Guerard and Chester Earles.
To excite interest in the cause of art which, in those days, seems to have wanted a good deal of tickling, an art union was arranged in connection with the academy, and Mrs. Parsons had the honor of having her work chosen and sent to Tasmania, where it was well received. So it will be seen that, though like others who served in the burden and heat, her name has become little more than a memory - she was not without honor in her day, and honor, fairly earned, is a thing that dies hard. (The Age, December 10, 1932, see
here)
We will finish this post on Elizabeth Parsons once again quoting Veronica Filmer - Through persistence and hard work Elizabeth Parsons reached a prominent position in the Victorian art world and was an inspiration to many around her who aspired to do the same. (11)
Acknowledgement Much of this post I have summarised from Veronica Filmer's essay on the life and work of Elizabeth Parsons, which was published in
More than a memory: the art of Elizabeth Parsons (Geelong Gallery, 2004). It is of course a much more comprehensive, scholarly and detailed study of Elizabeth's life and work than what you read here. Here is the link to the work again from the Geelong Gallery website
https://www.geelonggallery.org.au/whats-on/exhibitions/elizabeth-parsons Even though you can view it on-line, as I said before, if you ever come across a copy of the book, it is still worth buying. I've scanned the cover, so you will recognise it if you see it. It has 40 of her works reproduced, it's just a delight. I found out about Elizabeth Parsons, her connection to Berwick and Veronica Filmer's book, from my fellow historian, Isaac Hermann.
Footnotes(1) As well as the Elizabeth Parson works which are on-line at the State Library of Victoria, www.slv.vic.gov.au you can view some of her works on the Geelong Gallery website,
https://www.geelonggallery.org.au/. The National Gallery of Victoria has three of her works, on-line,
https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/ The National Gallery of Australia has nine of her works on-line
https://nga.gov.au/ (2)
The Argus December 1, 1870, see here. (3) Filmer, Veronica More than a memory: the art of Elizabeth Parsons (Geelong Gallery, 2004) page 15.
(4) Filmer, page 17
(5) Filmer, page 28
(6) Filmer, page 24
(7) Filmer, page 33
(8) Filmer, page 33. Ms Filmer was alerted to the possible connections between Elizabeth Parsons and Emma Minnie Boyd by Jennifer Phipps of the National Gallery of Victoria (footnote 79, page 33)
(9) Filmer, page 35
(10)
The Age, February 15, 1941, see
here.
(11)
The Age, December 10, 1932, see
here.
(12) Filmer, page 37
