William Pars
British artist (1742-1782)
William Pars (28 February 1742 – 1782) was an English watercolour portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and illustrator.
Life and works
Pars was born in London, the son of a metal engraver. He studied at "Shipley's Drawing School" (in the Strand), St. Martin's Lane Academy, and also in the Duke of Richmond's Gallery. In 1761, at the age of 17, he exhibited a portrait and miniatures at the Incorporated Society of Artists, and became a member of the Free Society of Artists in 1763. In 1764, he obtained the Society of Arts' medal for an historical painting.
In June 1764, he was selected by the Dilettanti Society to accompany, as draughtsman, Richard Chandler and Nicholas Revett to Greece. The result was published in Ionian Antiquities (4 volumes) which was illustrated from Pars's drawings.
Pars returned to England on 2 December 1766, and soon after accompanied Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston, to the continent, making drawings in Switzerland, the Tyrol, and Rome. In 1769, he contributed seven views from Greece to the first exhibition of the Royal Academy.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8016608. VIAF identifies the subject as 59973865. The Library of Congress control number is n82006840. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1742, 1782, 1761 and 1763.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Pars” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.