Parry, William

(1742 - 91), painter, s. of a celebrated blind Welsh harpist; studied at St Martin's Lane Acad. and D. of Richmond's gallery; exh. SA 1766 - 8, 1770: FS 1762 - 3, 1783; RA schools 1769 and pupil of Reynolds 1766; m. 1775 Miss Keene (d. 1779); exh. RA 1776 - 9, 1787 - 8; ARA 1776.

1771 - 5 Rome (by Easter 1771 - Apr. 1774), Capua (28 Apr.), Naples (May - Jun. 1774), Rome ( - Apr. 1775), Parma (May - Jun.)

1789(?) - 90 Rome

Parry's first trip to Italy was sponsored by his patron Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, and he is said to have set out in 1770.1 'Monsu Pari Inglese' a painter aged 26, was listed living on the Via Babuino at Easter 1771 and again (as 'Peri') in 1773 - 5.2 In Rome he was friendly with Dusign (like Parry, a former pupil of Reynolds) who probably shared rooms with him and who died there in 1773.3 Early in 1774, with Romney and Humphry, Parry met James Paine junior and his wife with Alexander Day as they arrived in Rome.4 By then Parry had become known for his copies.

In 1774 he succeeded in getting scaffolding erected in the church of S.Pietro in Montorio in order to copy Raphael's Transfiguration.5 Sir Watkin, who was already giving him a pension of £150 each year, bought two such copies, the larger for 400 gns.6 Parry also acquired a tracing of the picture which he was to bring to England, 'where it is supposed that he will make much money by it'.7 Parry was in Capua on 28 April 1774 with Delane and Hugh Dean on his way to Naples, where he spent May and June.8 In April 1775 he left Rome intending to copy the Correggio Holy Family with S.Jerome at Parma, which in the event he left unfinished in June for his pupil Robillard to complete - because, Joseph Wright explained, 'the picture did not appear so fine to him a second time as it did the first'.9 Parry had apparently met J.S. Copley in Parma.(10) His Correggio copy and another of a Roman Charity in Rome were also acquired by Sir Watkin, together with an original portrait by Parry of the dwarf Baiocco.(11) On his return to London Parry introduced Thomas Jones to Christopher Norton (and the two subsequently travelled together to Italy).(12)

Parry returned to Italy, probably in 1789 (he had been exhibiting from addresses in England in 1783, 1787 and 1788). James Northcote said the purpose of this second visit was 'to seek employment in art, in addition to the wish of stifling the regret for the loss of an aimiable wife; he accordingly commenced the copying of some of the finest pieces in that capital'. Parry was in Rome on 26 May 1789,13 and in 1790 his name appeared on a list of English artists at Rome as a history painter living at the Casa di Battoni, near the Strada Condotta (Rome List). In a letter to Sir Roger Newdigate dated Rome, 1 September 1790, Parry said he already had copies of Michelangelo's Last Judgment, Raphael's Madonna della sedia and the Mars and Venus by Rubens in the Pitti, and he offered to make copies on his return journey through Florence and Bologna.14 'But his health was soon so much impaired', wrote Northcote, 'that he was induced to return to England, where he did indeed arrive, but only to breath his last'.

1. See Edwards, 162, and Northcote, Reynolds, 1:159 - 60. 2. AVR sa, S.Maria del Popolo. 3. See Thorpe letters MSS (T. Collopy, 27 Feb. 1773). 4. G.C. Williamson, Humphry,

49. 5. Humphry corr.MSS, hu/1/138 (Humphry draft, n.d.). Thorpe letters MSS (10 Dec. 1774*). 6. Thorpe letters MSS (30 Jul. 1774, 15 Oct.*1774). 7. Ibid. (15 Feb., 25 Apr. 1775). 8. Ibid. (11 May, 25 Jun. 1774). ASN cra 1259. 9. Thorpe letters MSS (25 Apr., 17 Jun. 1775). W. Bemrose, Wright of Derby, 36. 10. J.D. Prown, Copley, 2:253. 11. NLW, Wynnstay MSS, misc.vol.16 (Wynnstay Inventory Feb. 1790). 12. Jones Memoirs, 38. 13. Waters letters MSS (27 May 1789). 14. Newdigate MSS, B2202.