it looks to me more a portrait of the parrot than the lad - that is, it's not firstly a portrait of him, although the artist will have painted from a model who had been 'cast' in this role and dressed appropriately. however, the model probably didn't pose with the bird, as it is not really perching on his hand, and the parrot could well have been painted from a stuffed specimen or an ornithological illustration.
Pictures of attractive young attendants exotically costumed are quite common and the genre persisted well into 20th century.
if the parrot species can be identified, this would help in guessing where the painting was produced. Another clue is possibly in the provenance not from Francis Peek but Lady Peek [his wife?] and more specifically her father Robert Kirkwood who was Jamaican-born chair of Jamaica Sugar Manufacturers and significant figure there . if the parrot is Caribbean and the landscape background also, then the picture could have been done in / or for Jamaican market. how did it fetch up in Australia?
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