Mills, Vicky and Ford, L. (2025) The man who painted his house. [Video]
Abstract
A short film about art, labour and devotion. The man who painted his house is David Parr, a Victorian working-class decorative artist apprenticed to the Cambridge firm F. R. Leach & Sons. Parr worked for leading designers linked to the Arts and Crafts Movement, including William Morris, and in 1886 he saved enough money to buy a house for himself and his family. Parr painstakingly hand painted his modest terraced house in Cambridge inspired by the intricately patterned style of the Arts & Crafts interiors on which he worked during the day. This extraordinary home was preserved within the Parr family for generations but remained unknown to the public until it was discovered by chance. In 2014, the David Parr House charity was set up to preserve the house as a museum. The film, which is part of a wider research project on the figure of the Victorian art-workman led by Dr Mills, explores Parr’s story through observations of the house and its use today, a visit to All Saint’s Church where he worked, archival material, and an original score for viola and piano.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Video |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | https://www.bbk.ac.uk/research/centres/nineteenth-century-studies/the-man-who-painted-his-house |
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | Arts and Crafts Movement; William Morris; art-workman; art history; museums |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication |
| Research Centres and Institutes: | Nineteenth-Century Studies, Centre for |
| Depositing User: | Vicky Mills |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Sep 2025 15:06 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2025 15:06 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/55792 |
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