William Parry (2 May 1743 – 12 February 1791) was a Welsh artist. Primarily a portrait painter, he attracted extensive patronage in Wales due to his connections with

Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet (23 September 1749 – 24 July 1789) was a Wales, Welsh landowner, politician and patron of the arts. The Williams-Wynn baronets had been begun in 1688 by the politician Sir William Williams, 1st Baronet, of ...

He was the son of John Parry, a blind harpist who held a key position in the household of

Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet (c. 169226 September 1749) was a Welsh politician and landowner who sat in the British House of Commons from 1716 to 1749, when he died in office. A member of the Tory party, he was also a prominent Jacobi ...

Wynnstay Wynnstay is a country house within an important landscaped park 1.3 km (0.75 miles) south-east of Ruabon, near Wrexham, Wales. Wynnstay, previously Watstay, is a famous estate and the family seat of the Wynns. The house was sold in 1948 and i ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

, the wealthiest and most powerful Welshman of the time. At the age of sixteen he enrolled at

William Shipley William Shipley (baptised: 2 June 1715 – 28 December 1803) was an English drawing master, social reformer and inventor who, in 1754, founded an arts society in London that became The Royal Society of Arts, or Royal Society for the Encourage ...

's drawing academy, later becoming a pupil to Joshua Reynolds. In late 1769 or early 1770 he returned to Wales, where the Wynnstay estate had lately been inherited by the third baronet's son, an art lover who had just returned from his

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...

. He also received commissions for chalk and painted portraits from others in the Welsh gentry. Sir Watkin funded Parry's own Grand Tour in 1770–5, during which he produced full-scale copies of paintings by Raphael and Correggio. In 1776 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, having exhibited five portraits in that year's Summer Exhibition. In around 1775–6, he painted the ''Portrait of

Omai Mai (c.1751-late 1779), known as Omai in Britain, was a young Ra'iatean man who became the second Pacific Islander to visit Europe, after Ahu-toru who was brought to Paris by Bougainville in 1768. Life Ma'i, born c.1751, described himself ...

with Sir Joseph Banks and Dr

Daniel Solander Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander (19 February 1733 – 13 May 1782) was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot on Australian soil. Biography ...

'', one of his most celebrated works. In 1779 Parry's wife Elizabeth (née Keene) died in childbirth. In 1789 Parry returned to Italy, according to

James Northcote James Northcote (22 October 1746, in Plymouth – 13 July 1831, in London) was a British painter. Life and work Northcote was born in Plymouth, and was apprenticed to his father, Samuel Northcote, a watchmaker. In his spare time, he drew a ...

, "to seek employment in art, in addition to the wish of stifling the regret for the loss of an amiable wife". After a sudden decline in his health, he returned to London, where he died in 1791, aged 47.

References

* Miles Wynn Cato, ''Parry: The Life and Works of William Parry A.R.A. (1743–1791)''. WelshArt, 2008

External links

*
Paintings by William Parry in National Museum Cardiff

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parry, John 1743 births 1791 deaths 18th-century Welsh painters 18th-century Welsh male artists Welsh male painters Associates of the Royal Academy