About Beatrice Parsons
Beatrice Emma Parsons (1870–1955) was born in Peckham, South London. She was the sister to Karl Parsons, a stained-glass artist, who commemorated their family in a stained-glass window in St. Matthew’s Church, Oxhey.
She studied at King’s College London, before attending the Royal Academy Schools, where she won three prizes.
Parsons was well known for her watercolour paintings of garden subjects, however, she first experimented with historical and genre paintings as well as portraits, landscapes and still-life paintings. She preferred painting gardens in their summer colours, and usually gardens of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.
A lot of her work was featured on postcards and greetings cards, and also featured in gardening books, such as Gardens of England (1908) and The Charm of Gardens (1910).
The royals became interested in her work and Queen Mary purchased over 30 of her paintings. Some were also bought by the Duchess of Westminster and the Duchess of Harewood.
She painted gardens for Lord and Lady Hillingdon at Overstrand Hall, and was invited every year between 1921 and 1929 to Blickling Hall to paint the gardens there.
In 1889, Parsons had her first exhibition at the Royal Academy. Her first solo exhibition, entitled ‘Old English Gardens (Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter)’ was in 1904 at the Dowdeswell Gallery in London, and was a near sell-out. She exhibited regularly in London during her lifetime, having 22 solo shows between the Dowdeswell and Greatorex galleries.
