Edward Parrini’s watercolour of St Mary’s Church, circa 1890.

Our parish archivist, Diana Wells, writes:

An attractive watercolour, only 18 x 22cm, was brought to my attention by the grandson of the artist, Edward Parrini (1850-1914), who wished to check if it was indeed a painting of St Mary’s Twickenham. Unlike many illustrations of St Mary’s taken from the north side or from upriver of the Church Lane slipway, it shows an unusual view of the east end of the church.

The date of the painting can be estimated between 1882 when Parrini came to England and 1895 when the Old Vicarage was demolished: its red roofs and chimneys can be seen below the church where today is the Garden of Remembrance.  

This view presents a puzzle as it shows high tide covering the Riverside below the churchyard. However, it is hard to tell if the grass and the two anglers in the foreground are on isolated bollards. Perhaps they are on the upriver tip of the meadow which was grazed by cattle before the York House gardens were developed by Ratan Tata in 1907 and later. In any case, the angle of the view is certainly curious: the walls below the church are not obscured by Champion’s Wharf as one would expect, nor by the trees growing on the meadow. Moreover, the buttresses should surely be on the section of wall immediately below the Old Vicarage, rather than apparently in front of Dial House, the edge of whose roof appears above the anglers’ heads. Where, after all, is the gate into the churchyard from the Riverside?

Did the artist perhaps complete his painting from memory?[1] Or is it an example of the artist 're-arranging' some features to achieve a more picturesque composition? A request for comments in the newsletter of the Borough of Twickenham Local History Society failed to produce any further information.

Many of Parrini’s paintings are of churches and bridges by the Thames and it is thought that he used a boat when painting many of them. Most of his artistic work is in watercolour though there are some oil paintings known.  It is assumed that he sold these or painted them on commission. Today the members of his family now own many of his pictures and acquire them when possible. Some are in the Wandsworth Town Hall and the Gallery in Carlisle.

From the details of his life and work which his grandson has spent much time researching, a fascinating story of Parrini’s life has emerged. The artist was born in 1850, Eduardo Luigi Pietro Parrini, to an Italian family living in Constantinople, but after the early death of his mother and his father’s remarriage he was sent for his education in Naples.

In about 1882 he arrived as an apprentice artist to paint the murals in the Brompton Oratory in Kensington, after which he remained in London for the rest of his life, marrying three times and leaving five children. His first and second wives died after only two years of marriage, but his third wife lived to 1963 aged 89 and is well remembered by the grandson.

Parrini lived in Wandsworth and the family attended St Thomas à Beckett Catholic Church, West Hill, where Canon Cooney was the parish priest. For the rest of his life he anglicised his name to Edward Louis Anthony Peter Parrini, and some of his descendants have retained his names.

Edward Parrini’s painting of St Mary’s Church is owned by his grandson to whom we are most grateful for permission to reproduce it here.

 [1] See York House, Twickenham, T.H.R. Cashmore, 1990, BOTLHS Paper No. 4; Fig.16 the riverside meadow in 1890 and Map 4, House and Gardens in 1907.