Pars, William
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- Pars, William
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(1742 - 82), painter; b. London; studied St Martin's Lane Acad. and D. of Richmond's gallery; accompanied Dilettanti's expedition to Greece and Turkey 1764 - 6; to Switzerland with Ld. Palmerston 1770; exh. SA 1760 - 1: FS 1761 - 4: RA 1769 - 73, 1775 - 6; ARA 1770; d. Rome.
1775 - 82 Rome (by 21 Dec. 1775 - d. Oct. 1782) with visits to Naples (Oct. 1780, Jun. - Jul. 1781)
Pars had already travelled in the Middle East and Switzerland when he left England for Rome at the end of 1775. He had then taken up with the wife of Samuel Smart the miniature painter and, according to Thomas Jones, he 'neglected all other pursuits for her with such an inattention to business, finding he could not remain long in England, and being naturally of a roving disposition - He accepted of, from the [Dilettanti] Society, a small pension of 60 pounds a year to study in Italy 3 Years - With this scanty commission and a few Commissions from [Lord Palmerston], he set off with the Lady'.1
Although they lost their luggage on the road to Paris,2 they reached Rome on 21 December 1775.3 They were doubtless the 'Guilerme Paris' an English painter aged 35 - 6 and 'Madama Marianne Vulcoch' aged 28 living near the Via Babuino in 1776; in 1777 the painter 'Paris' was sharing the address with Henry Tresham.4 Pars had been warmly recommended by Horace Walpole to both Horace Mann and William Hamilton ('he is so modest you will like him, and the Italian ladies will not; but he looks as if it was worth their while to cure him'.5 As a close friend, Pars figures frequently in Jones's Memoirs: they sketch together at Frascati (April - May 1777), in la Storta (July 1777), Rome (August 1779), Albani (24 Feb. 1780), and Naples (June 1781) and they shared lodgings in Rome (in the Strada Gregoriana, Feb. - Jun. 1779) and Naples (June 1781). By April 1778 'Mrs Pars' was described as dying of a galloping consumption,6 and she died in Rome on 6 June 1778. At her funeral two days later, held at night as was customary with Protestant burials,7 'all the English Artists who were then at Rome walk'd in procession with torches to the number of 18 or 20 - Banks the sculptor read the Service'.8
Apart from his watercolour views, Jones records Pars making copies of Reni's Aurora in April 1778 (Jones believed this went to the Bishop of Derry) and of Titian's Danae in the Capo di Monte in October 1780. He also painted portraits in oils; in February 1780 he was painting a whole-length of John Coxe Hippisley9 and in July 1781 he was finishing a portrait of the marchesa Santa Marco in Naples. In February 1781 James Irvine commented that 'Pars has painted some very good portraits'.(10)
His death came unexpectedly, as Jones (who had first heard of it on 2 November 1782) described : 'having been with an English Gentleman at Tivoli making a Drawing at a particular Spot there called the Grotto of Neptune, he imprudently sat the whole time with his feet in the water - being taken with a fit of shivering he was wrapt up in a blanket and sent off immediately to Rome', where four days later he died of suffocation'.(11) Jones was left to reflect that 'though he was rather hasty and sometimes indeed Violent in his temper', Pars had been 'a warm and sincere friend'.
1. Jones Memoirs, 74. 2. Wal.Corr., 26:48; 6:236. 3. Dilettanti MSS (Pars, 3 Jan. 1776). 4. AVR sa, S.Maria del Popolo. 5. Wal.Corr., 35:425. 6. Bell, Banks, 32. 7. Northcote Memorials, 159 - 60, gives the name as Parr. 8. Jones Memoirs, 73. 9. Ibid., 93. See also Apollo, 99[1974]:440. 10. Add.36493, f.128 (10 Feb. 1781). 11. Jones Memoirs, 116.