Beatrice Emma Parsons

Beatrice Emma Parsons (1869–1955) was a British painter and is best known for her watercolours of garden subjects. Parsons, along with George Samuel Elgood and Lilian Stannard, is considered one of the leading English painters of gardens.

Personal life Parsons was born in Peckham, Surrey, England in 1869. She was sister to Karl Parsons, a stained-glass artist, who commemorated their family in a stained-glass window in St. Matthew's Church, Oxhey. Parsons attended the Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls and studied at King's College London, before attending the Royal Academy Schools, where she won three prizes.

Career

Although known for her garden paintings, Parsons originally experimented with historical and genre paintings and also created a few portraits, landscapes, and still-life paintings. She began painting, almost exclusively, garden subject watercolours in 1900. She painted in England, but also in Europe and Africa. Her work was featured on postcards and greeting cards during her time. 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.