Portrait of Sir Henry Parkes

A CHINESE APPRECIATION. (By G. Lovell Dwyer, in the "Sunday News.")

One of the most interesting of the recent additions to the Mitchell Library is a large portrait in oils of Sir Henry Parkes, which has just been presented to the Library by Miss Annie Parkes, a daughter of the celebrated statesman. A remarkable fact concerning the portrait is that it was painted by a Chinese artist in Sydney in 1886, and was presented to Sir Henry by the Chinese residents as a token of their appreciation of his actions in Parliament in their interests, in seeing that they had what they considered to be fair play.

The Chinese who painted the picture was an enthusiast, who studied art under a German master.

Sir Henry presented the portrait to his daughter, Miss Annie Parkes, and in his letter to her—which is also in the gift to the Library—he wrote:

"Its origin is this: I said a few words in the Legislative Assembly deprecating the wholesale denunciation of the Chinese which some members had indulged in, maintaining that, on the whole, they were an industrious and law-abiding people. A deputation of well-to-do Chinese waited upon me to thank me. I told them that the words fell from me in the performance of what I regarded as a duty, and that they were under no obligation to me in the matter. I regard the portrait as a good one."

Nepean Times, Saturday 27 June 1925, p.1.