John Parker was born John Leo Parker in Birmingham, England on 27 June 1839. He studied at the Birmingham Government School of Design and then at the Art Training School on South Kensington, London. In 1862 he was appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal College in Mauritius, a post he held until returned to England to take up the position of headmaster at St. Martin's School of Art in London which he held until 1888. He was then employed by the Board of Education as Examiner of Drawing. In 1867 he married Ellen Grace Stevens and together they settled in St. Johns Wood, London. Parker mainly painted rural scenes, genre subjects and portraits. Between 1867 and 1914, he exhibited 76 works at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, and during these years he exhibited 185 works at the Old Water Colour Society [from 1881 known as the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours] in London.