Author: Parsey, Arthur
Biography:
PARSEY, Arthur (1791-1857: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born at Goodman’s Fields, Aldgate, London, on 3 Mar. 1791 and baptised on 27 Mar. at St. Mary, Whitechapel, London, the son of Jacob Parsey, stationer and paperhanger, and his wife Elizabeth Blike. The family lived in Leman Street, near the Tower of London. Nothing is known of his education. The Deserted Village Restored (1815) was printed for the author, with his father selling the work at his premises in Whitechapel Road. He married Mary Charlotte Morse (1788-1864) on 25 Feb. 1818 at St. Mary, Whitechapel. They had three sons and two daughters. At the time of his marriage he was clerk to a merchant, which work he retained for about seven years but then developed an interest in miniature portrait painting. He exhibited twenty-three paintings in London (1828-43) including fourteen at the Royal Academy (1829-37). In the 1840s he lived at 2 Spur Street, Leicester Square but by 1851 he was living with his family at 455 New Oxford Street, Marylebone, giving his occupation as artist and miniature portrait painter. He died on 3 Dec. 1857 at 3 Crescent Place, Burton Crescent (now Cartwright Gardens), Bloomsbury, aged 67. His wife survived him and died in 1864. In addition to the work listed here, he published The Art of Miniature Painting on Ivory (1831), Perspective Rectified (1836), and The Science of Vision; or, Natural Perspective! Containing the True Language of the Eye (1840). (Boase, 6: 362; ancestry.co.uk 6 Mar. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 6 Mar. 2023; Globe 14 July 1815; Evening Mail 25 Dec. 1843; MH 8 Dec. 1857) AA