Bidspirit auction | Beatrice Parsons Spring Garden with

Beatrice Parsons Spring Garden with Daffodils Watercolor and Gouache - A formal early 20th-century garden scene executed in watercolor and gouache on paper. Beatrice Emma Parsons was an exceptional English garden painter. She studied at the Royal Academy Schools and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1889-99, but didn't begin to paint floral/garden scenes until about 1900. Thereafter, her main body of work was in the painting of garden scenes, primarily English but also abroad. She exhibited extensively in Dowdeswell and the Greatorex Galleries (some 22 solo exhibitions), illustrated several garden books, including the Gardens of England (1908) and The Charm of Gardens (1910) and some of her works feature in the Royal Collection - Queen Mary was a fan. When ”the Queen of the blazing border” died the Times wrote: “As a painter of gardens in watercolour, Beatrice Parsons was probably unrivalled. Her special gift was perhaps her crisp and articulate touch in an inlay of colour which clearly defined the individual flowers without forcing them out of their context in the mass.” The composition depicts a curated spring garden featuring a winding dirt path lined with dense rows of white daffodils. A wooden pergola draped in budding wisteria stands to the left, while two blackbirds occupy a manicured green lawn in the lower right foreground. The background is filled with delicate, leafless spring trees and shrubbery rendered in a soft, atmospheric palette. The work is signed by hand in the lower right corner as Beatrice Parsons, with a horizontal flourish extending from the final letter. The verso of the backing board features a white adhesive label typed in blue ink reading BEATRICE PARSONS / 1869 - 1955 / SPRING GARDEN WITH / DAFFODILS. Additional handwritten ink inscriptions include For Miss S. Hurlbatt / White House / Welshpool N.W. and framing notations specifying a 3 1/4 inch gold mount and 1 1/4 inch flat-plain frame. The piece is housed in a decorative gilt gesso frame with a beaded and scrollwork inner border.