Thomas Gambier Parry

Thomas Gambier Parry (February 22, 1816 – September 28,1888) was an English artist and art collector. He is best remembered for his development of the Gambier Parry process of fresco painting.

Gambier Parry's parents, Richard and Mary Parry of Banstead, Surrey, died when he was young and he was raised by his maternal aunts and uncles, the Gambiers. He moved to Highnam Court, Gloucestershire when he was 21 and, in 1839, he married Anna Maria Isabella Fynes-Clinton. Only two of their six children survived to adulthood, Clinton Charles Parry and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (the composer), with Isabella surviving the birth of Hubert in 1848 by only twelve days.

In 1851, Gambier Parry married Ethelinda Lear, by whom he had six children.

His father and grandfather were both directors of the British East India Company and Gambier Parry devoted his inherited wealth to good works. He adopted the principles of the Tractarian Movement, and was a prominent member of the Ecclesiological Society. Thomas Gambier Parry was a notable collector of medieval and renaissance art. The Courtauld Institute of Art later acquired his collection.

After studying the technique of the Italian fresco painters, Thomas Gambier-Parry developed his own spirit fresco method and executed grand-scale mural projects at Ely Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral and the parish church at Highnam.

He gained the reputation of a philanthropist, founding a children's hospital, orphanage, and college of science and art at Gloucester, and providing a church and school for his tenants at Highnam.

Bibliography

*Farr, D ("ed.") (1993) "Thomas Gambier Parry (1816–1888) as Artist and Collector" ISBN 0-904563-09-X

External links

* [http://www.4front.cwc.net/Highnam/HighnamPersonalitiesTGP.html Gambier Parry at Highnam]