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Sydney Parkinson ( 1745 – 26 January 1771) was a Scottish botanical illustrator and
natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
artist. He was the first European artist to visit Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Parkinson was the first
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
to visit New Zealand.


Early life and family

Parkinson was born in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
; his parents were the Edinburgh brewer Joel Parkinson, a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
, 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 A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Meetings can be used as form of group decision-making. Definiti ...
of Quakers; John Fothergill was another 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.


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. Lee introduced Parkinson to
Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...
in 1767. Through Banks, Parkinson also established contact with the zoologist
Thomas Pennant Thomas Pennant (16 December 1798) was a Welsh natural history, naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall, near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales. As a naturalist he had ...
. 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, Parkinson worked for Banks on the latter's collections from his 1766 voyage to
Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...
. He produced drawings and watercolour paintings of animals, from specimens preserved in alcohol or stuffed birds. When Banks planned a voyage to Sweden in order to meet
Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
in
Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...
and to see Lapland, he intended to take Parkinson as his draughtsman.


Voyage with Captain Cook

Parkinson was employed by
Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...
to travel with him on
James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...
's first voyage to the
Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...
in 1768, in
HMS Endeavour HMS ''Endeavour'' was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia on his First voyage of James Cook, first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771. She was launched in 1764 as t ...
. 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 Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...
, he was plagued by swarms of flies which ate the paint as he worked. He died at sea on the way to
Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
of
dysentery Dysentery ( , ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehyd ...
contracted at Princes' Island off the western end of
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
. 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.


Legacy

Parkinson is commemorated in the common and scientific name of the Parkinson's petrel ''Procellaria parkinsoni''. The great Florilegium of his work was finally published in 1988 by Alecto Historical Editions in 35 volumes and has since been digitized by the Natural History Museum in London. In 1986, he was honoured on a
postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...
depicting his portrait issued by
Australia Post Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation and also known as AusPost, is an Australian Government-State-owned enterprise, owned corporation that provides postal services throughout Australia. Australia Post's head office is loca ...
. The following are some examples of Parkinson's artistic work: __NOTOC__ Image:Banksia serrata watercolour from Bank's Florilegium.jpg, ''
Banksia serrata ''Banksia serrata'', commonly known as the saw banksia, the old man banksia, the saw-tooth banksia or the red honeysuckle and as wiriyagan by the Cadigal people, is a species of woody shrub or tree of the genus ''Banksia'', in the family P ...
'' Image:Banksia integrifolia watercolour from Banks' Florilegium.jpg, '' Banksia integrifolia'' Image:Banksia ericifolia watercolour from Bank's Florilegium.jpg, '' Banksia ericifolia'' Image:Banksia dentata watercolour from Bank's Florilegium.jpg, '' Banksia dentata''


See also

* Visual arts of Australia * List of Australian botanical illustrators *
European and American voyages of scientific exploration The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment. Maritime expeditions in the Age of Discovery were ...


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


Parkinson's posthumously published ''Journal'', 1773
online at the
National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

Examples of Parkinson's drawings published in ''A journal of a voyage to the South Seas, in His Majesty's ship, the Endeavour'', 1773. Royal Geographical Society of South Australia
*


Further reading

* de Bray, Lys (2001). ''The Art of Botanical Illustration: A history of classic illustrators and their achievements'', pp. 72, 77. Quantum Publishing Ltd., London. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Parkinson, Sydney 1740s births 1771 deaths British naturalists Participants in James Cook's voyages British scientific illustrators 18th-century British illustrators British botanical illustrators British bird artists Scottish Quakers People who died at sea Artists from Edinburgh Deaths from dysentery