He was a son of John Parke the oboist, was intended for the bar, and studied under a special pleader. But a speech impediment led him to abandon the law. He studied architecture, and his father placed him with Sir John Soane, who used him as a draughtsman for hisRoyal Academy lectures.
He became versed in mathematics, geometry, mechanics, and drawing, both architectural and landscape. Between 1820 and 1824 Parke visited Italy, Sicily, Genoa, Greece, and Egypt, ascending the Nile in 1824 with a fellow-student, John Joseph Scoles. At Rome and elsewhere he worked with Frederick Catherwood, Thomas Leverton Donaldson, and others, measuring antique remains and modern works.
On returning to England, at the end of 1824, he worked out his sketches.
Parke died 5 May 1835. Many of his oil and water-colour drawings and marine works were sold at Sotheby"s by auction in May 1836.
