38/2004

Paintings, Prints and Drawings

A London Garden in August, watercolour on paper, glazed and framed, signed Beatrice Parsons, c.1898-1900.

A London Garden in August

painting
watercolour painting

38/2004

Beatrice Parsons (artist)

1898-1900 (painted)

Chiswick (painted)

Victorian (1837-1901)

paint
paper

painted
signed

Watercolour painting on paper, showing a woman wearing a white dress in a garden. In the background a house is visible, with two large trees and a brick wall with ivy. In the midground is the woman standing on a patch of grass, surrounded by a large bed of flowers. The flowerbed includes hollyhocks, gladioli, marigolds and poppies. In the foreground are several plant pots, and the artist's signature in brown, 'Beatrice Parsons.' underlined.
On the reverse of the painting is a label, inscribed 'a London Garden in August/ Beatrice Parsons' in brown ink, the words 'Beatrice Parsons' underlined. At the top of the label, which is torn and browned, the details of the dealer are partially visible, printed in green ink. It reads FROM/ [DOW]DESWELL & DOWDESWELL/ LIMITED/ NEW BOND STREET, LONDON W.'
The painting is framed in a gold wooden frame.

The watercolour depicts the colourful garden of 'Eyot Cottage' in Hammersmith, the home of the architect Charles Spooner and his artist wife, Minnie Dibdin. Minnie is shown in the painting, wearing a white dress.

Height: 33cm
Width: 44.9cm
Height: 50.7cm
Width: 63cm
Height: 32cm
Width: 45cm

garden ornaments and containers
walls, fences and other boundaries
ornamental plants
images of gardens

Label text for the digital interactive located in the Twentieth Century Paintings Gallery (September 2015- June 2017):

View of the garden, Eyot Cottage, Hammersmith, west London
By Beatrice Parsons
Watercolour on paper, 1898-1900

This cottage-style garden is filled with colourful hollyhocks, gladioli and poppies. In 1883 the influential garden designer and writer William Robinson wrote that English gardens were being ‘robbed of all life and grace’ by formal geometric designs. Robinson and his contemporaries instead advocated the ‘semi-wild’ beauty of flower gardens like this one belonging to the architect Charles Spooner and illustrator Minnie Dibdin Spooner.

Label text for the exhibition A Garden Within Doors: Plants and Flowers in the Home, Geffrye Museum (30 March - 25 July 2010):
A London Garden in August by Beatrice Parsons (1870-1955)
This garden filled with ‘old-fashioned’ flowers, such as hollyhocks, gladioli and marigolds, shows just how productive a relatively small town garden could be. Adaptations of the traditional cottage garden, such as this, were in vogue. Advocated by members of the Arts and Crafts movement, with whom this garden’s owners were affiliated, they represented an artistic alternative to the rigid and expensive bedding system popular in the previous century.
About 1898-1900
Watercolour on paper
Geffrye Museum Collection

Charles Sidney Spooner
Minnie Dibdin Spooner