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Sydney Parkinson

Sydney Parkinson (c. 1745 – 26 January 1771) was a Scottish botanical illustrator and natural history artist. He was the first European artist to visit Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Parkinson was the first Quaker to visit New Zealand.

Early life and family
Parkinson was born in Edinburgh; his parents were the Edinburgh brewer Joel Parkinson, a Quaker, and his wife Elizabeth. His birth year is usually given as, but is somewhat suspect as his mother was born. He had a brother, Stanfield, and a sister, whose name was Britannia. The parents were members of the Edinburgh meeting of Quakers, where the physician John Fothergill was also a member. Parkinson's father died in 1749, leaving the family in financial difficulties. Parkinson became apprentice of a woollen draper. According to his brother, he took "a particular delight in drawing flowers, fruits and other objects of natural history", becoming "so great a proficient in that stile of painting, as to attract the notice of the most celebrated botanists." While no direct evidence exists that Parkinson received formal training in art, he has been connected to William Delacour, who taught drawing and design at the Trustees' Academy, and may have been influenced by other Edinburgh artists. Parkinson was related to wealthy Quakers from Newcastle, descendants of Joshua Middleton who came from the Middleton family of Belsay Castle; one of his cousins from that side of the family was Jane Gomeldon, nowadays considered an early feminist, to whom Parkinson was strongly attached.

London
The family moved to London, where Parkinson's brother Stanfield worked as an upholsterer. In 1765 and 1766, some of Parkinson's flower paintings and drawings were shown at Free Society of Artists exhibitions. Parkinson began to give drawing lessons, and the Scottish nurseryman James Lee, a fellow Quaker, employed him as teacher to his daughter Ann, and she copied some of her teacher's work. Lee introduced Parkinson to Joseph Banks in 1767. Through Banks, Parkinson also established contact with the zoologist Thomas Pennant. Parkinson produced copies of some animal paintings in the collection of Joan Gideon Loten, which were later published in some of Pennant's zoological books. His watercolours of birds of the Loten collection were painted in 1767, either from specimens or from drawings. Together with a fellow artist, Peter Paillou, CARR 15 SAYS ALSO EHRET Parkinson worked for Banks on the latter's collections from his 1766 voyage to Newfoundland and Labrador. He produced drawings and watercolour paintings of animals, from specimens preserved in alcohol or stuffed birds, while Banks had engaged Georg Dionysius Ehret for the botanical illustrations. When Banks planned a voyage to Sweden in order to meet Linnaeus in Uppsala and to see Lapland, he intended to take Parkinson as his draughtsman. However, Banks discarded these plans when the opportunity arose to travel on HMS Endeavour with James Cook.

Voyage with Captain Cook
background of voyage

transit of venus

banks and his plans; other artists

banks hires parkinson

work on board the ship

rio

tierra del fuego

voyage home and death
letter to jane g

Parkinson was employed by Joseph Banks to travel with him on James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific in 1768, in HMS Endeavour. Parkinson made nearly a thousand drawings of plants and animals collected by Banks and Daniel Solander on the voyage. He had to work in difficult conditions, living and working in a small cabin surrounded by hundreds of specimens. In Tahiti he was plagued by swarms of flies which ate the paint as he worked. He died at sea on the way to Cape Town of dysentery contracted at Princes' Island off the western end of Java. Banks paid his outstanding salary to his brother.

Before his travels Parkinson had taught illustration to Ann Lee, daughter of James Lee a Hammersmith nurseryman for whom he had made illustrations. In his will Parkinson left "whatever utensils that are useful in painting or drawing to Mr. Lee’s daughter, my scholar."

Journal
Parkinson kept a journal on board the ship until shortly before his death in January 1771. While the fair copy of the journal was lost and never found, Stanfield Parkinson obtained some of his brother's papers from Banks in 1773, and decided to publish them earlier than John Hawkesworth's official publication of Cook's and Banks's journals. A legal injunction obtained by Hawkesworth prevented the publication until two days after his book had appeared on 10 June 1773.

Endeavour
Most of Parkinson's time in Tahiti was spent drawing objects of natural history (plants, birds, fishes) for Banks. Additionally, he depicted the economic and social activities of the islanders as well as landscapes. He also made portraits of individual Tahitians, of which only engravings are known. His landscape drawings were likely not made for Banks, but on his own initiative.
 * plan: observe 1769 transit of Venus
 * Banks takes part with entourage; payment for SP
 * Parkinson's will
 * leaving in August 1768
 * work on board: madeira, rio, tierra del fuego
 * tahiti

Parkinson was interested in the languages of the Pacific, and compiled lists of words and phrases, collecting a vocabulary of over 400 items in Polynesian languages, 67 Maori words and 141 from the language of an Australian Aboriginal tribe.


 * south pacific / new zealand
 * australia / reef; pumps
 * batavia. october letter mentioned in beaglehole I 627. Also wrote letter to Fothergill (https://www.jstor.org/stable/531658)
 * death

In Cook's journal, Parkinson's death is recorded as "Departed this Life Mr Sidney Parkinson, Natural History Painter to Mr Banks", while the ship's log has "Departed this Life Mr Sydney Parkinson, one of Mr Bankes Gentlemen Adventurers."


 * (Tierra del Fuego) Joppien/Smith p.14

Journal
(see Oxford DNB) Standfield / Forthersgill

Parkinson's journal contains some stories not found in Cook's journal, for example a story about going ashore in the middle of the night near Rio de Janeiro in defiance of the Portuguese viceroy.

Legacy
Florilegium etc

Parkinson's collection of seashells was purchased by John Fothergill.