With debts from the Northern Academy affair outstanding and a large family to support, Parker resorted to further self-publicity.
Critiques on Paintings by H.P. Parker was published by Parker in 1835.
It is a compendium of newspaper reviews of 67 of Parker’s paintings and 48 portraits.
It includes ‘slight etchings’ to serve as an aide-memoire or an introduction to the compositions.
With eighteen oil paintings unsold, Parker explains his hope that the book will interest new patronage as ‘many of his early patrons [have been] removed by death and other circumstances.’

Pitmen at Play, shown at the Royal Academy in 1836, proved popular and led to other ‘at play’ subjects.
It has been noted that Thomas Gainsborough’s  ‘beggar children and humble families at work or at play outside tumbledown Picturesque cottages … were not meant as criticisms of social conditions; the whole intention was to move the beholder’s affections.’
Similarly, while the social import of Parker displaying ‘pitmen’ at the Royal Academy is itself of note, ultimately their function was to please and entertain the spectator.

Parker recognised the importance of drawing as the foundation of picture-making, and at various times in his life he had drawing pupils.
In the late 1830s he was teaching drawing at the Bruce Academy, Percy Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Parker usually started with making watercolour sketches ‘from Nature’, then assembling the elements into the final composition.
 His father was often called upon to model the head of a smuggler or a seventeenth-century  ‘Covenanter’.
With debts from the Northern Academy affair outstanding and a large family to support, Parker resorted to further self-publicity. Critiques on Paintings by H.P. Parker was published by Parker in 1835. It is a compendium of newspaper reviews of 67 of Parker’s paintings and 48 portraits. It includes ‘slight etchings’ to serve as an aide-memoire or an introduction to the compositions. With eighteen oil paintings unsold, Parker explains his hope that the book will interest new patronage as ‘many of his early patrons [have been] removed by death and other circumstances.’
Pitmen at Play, shown at the Royal Academy in 1836, proved popular and led to other ‘at play’ subjects. It has been noted that Thomas Gainsborough’s  ‘beggar children and humble families at work or at play outside tumbledown Picturesque cottages … were not meant as criticisms of social conditions; the whole intention was to move the beholder’s affections.’ Similarly, while the social import of Parker displaying ‘pitmen’ at the Royal Academy is itself of note, ultimately their function was to please and entertain the spectator.
Parker recognised the importance of drawing as the foundation of picture-making, and at various times in his life he had drawing pupils. In the late 1830s he was teaching drawing at the Bruce Academy, Percy Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. Parker usually started with making watercolour sketches ‘from Nature’, then assembling the elements into the final composition.  His father was often called upon to model the head of a smuggler or a seventeenth-century  ‘Covenanter’.
Henry Perlee Parker