"[1][2] Privately trained by painter and animal etcher Peter Moran, Parrish was best known for his landscape etching of "Eastern North America, particularly the harbors and villages of New England and Canada," and as the father of painter and illustrator Maxfield Parrish.

[1][3][4] Parrish was engaged in mercantile pursuits until he was 30, when he applied himself to art, studying for a year with a local teacher.

After that he applied himself to both branches of art, exhibiting in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, London, Liverpool, Paris, Munich, Dresden, and Vienna.

[1] Parrish's etchings include: Northern Moorland and Low Tide — Bay of Fundy (1882); Coast of New Brunswick, Winter Evening — Windsor, Nova Scotia, and Bethlehem (1884); London Bridge and On the Thames (1886); and A Gloucestar Wharf (1887).

Among his paintings are November (1880); In Winter Quarters (1884); Low Tide — Evening (1885); On the Rance, Brittany (1886); and The Road to Perry's Peak.