Haworth sketch book - home of the Bronte sisters - depicted in biro and pencil by the Yorkshire artist William (Bill) Parker (1922-2017) who lived and painted in the Bronte’s home village and depicted the surrounding countryside and villages.
Parker’s accomplished, busy sketches capture the streets and buildings in the Yorkshire towns and villages he loved; the majority in this volume depict scenes in and around Haworth including multiple sketches of the Old Hall Haworth, the top of Haworth Main St, the parsonage, the school rooms, Haworth Church, and a moorland path leading to the moors and Top Withens, the supposed inspiration for Wuthering Heights. Additional sketches feature nearby Laycock Village and The Turkey Inn, the tea rooms in Newsom, Oxenhope’s church and cottages, Main St. in Bingley, Bolton Abbey and churches in Addingham, Heysham and Thornton.
Keighley born William (Bill) Parker had shown artistic promise from an early age and studied the subject at Keighley Mechanic’s Institute, but the need to earn a living led him to other work; in his case in a local mill. War service with the Chindits in Burma was followed by work in India until the partition, when he returned to live in Haworth where he began to paint during his employment as a lamplighter in Oxenhope, and found inspiration in the Aire and Worth valleys.
After the demise of gas lighting, he worked for the remainder of his working life with British Gas as a labourer based in Keighley, where the outdoor nature of his work gave him the opportunity to study the Yorkshire landscape. Painting was fitted around his working day until retirement in 1984 when he turned more seriously to his paintings. There’s a homely charm to his work, depicting as is does the landscape he loved.
PHYSICAL CONDITION: In very good condition. A hard backed Daler Sketch Book containing c80 leaves drawn on to verso and recto throughout, each dated in the artist’s hand. Weather conditions, times of painting and notes regarding colour choices are abundant. The artist’s name and address is inscribed to the front pastedown in blue biro; written below in Japanese and English is ‘Wuthering Heights’. With provenance to a collection of sketchbooks belonging to the artist’s family and by descent.
