Arthur Devis was an English portrait

Portrait

thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

 painter, particularly known for the type of portrait now called a conversation piece

Conversation piece

Conversation piece is a term for an informal group portrait, especially those painted in Britain in the 18th century, beginning in the 1720s. They are distinguished by their portrayal of the group apparently engaged in genteel conversation or some activity, very often outdoors...

.

Arthur Devis was born in the city of Preston, Lancashire

City of Preston, Lancashire

The City of Preston is a city and non-metropolitan district in Lancashire, England. It is located on the north bank of the River Ribble, and was granted city status in 2002, becoming England's 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign...

, the eldest son of Anthony Devis. His father, who was a member of the Town Council as well as a carpenter and a bookseller, may have been responsible for introducing Devis to the Flemish painter Peter Tillemans

Peter Tillemans

Peter Tillemans was a Flemish painter, best known for his works on sporting and topographical subjects. Alongside John Wootton and James Seymour, he was one of the founders of the English school of sporting painting....

 who became his teacher. During the early 1730s, Devis is known to have been an assistant in Tillemans's studio, apparently copying views of Italy by artists such as Pannini

Pannini

Pannini may refer to:*A misspelling of the plural for "panino", a sandwich made from a small loaf of bread—see Panini *Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian 18th century painter of veduta or vistas...

 and Marco Ricci

Marco Ricci

Marco Ricci was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. He was the nephew of Sebastiano Ricci. After receiving his first instruction in art from his uncle, he visited Rome, where he was for some years occupied in drawing vedute....

. Not surprisingly, his first work painted on commission, a depiction of a house within its park, also shows an interest in landscape (Hoghton Towers from Duxon Hill, Lancashire, 1735; Private collection). By 1737, however, Devis had become a portrait painter. In 1745, he established a studio in Great Queen Street

Great Queen Street

Great Queen Street is a street in central London, England in the West End. It is a continuation of Long Acre from Drury Lane to Kingsway. It runs from 1 to 44 along the north side, east to west, and 45 to about 80 along the south side, west to east...

, London, having acquired a considerable artistic reputation by that time.

Devis received his greatest number of commissions for portraits between 1848 and 1858. Many of the pictures show the sitters in landscapes. Although described with what seems like precise topographical detail, these views, like all but one of the interiors, were mostly invented by Devis. The exception is the neo-Gothic library at Arbury Hall

Arbury Hall

Arbury Hall is a Grade I listed country house in Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England, and is the ancestral home of the Newdigate family, later the Newdigate-Newdegate and Fitzroy-Newdegate families....

 shown in Devis's portrait of Sir Roger Newdigate, who holds the plan for the room on his knee.

During the 1760s, Devis's success as a portrait painter diminished sharply. Although he exhibited works at the new Free Society of Artists

Society of Artists

The Society of Artists of Great Britain was founded in London in May 1761 by an association of artists in order to provide a venue for the public exhibition of recent work by living artists, such as was having success in the long-established Paris salons....

 between 1761 and 1775 and in 1780, becoming its president in 1768, his style seemed old-fashioned compared to portraits by important contemporary artists such as Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...

 and Johann Zoffany

Johann Zoffany

Johan Zoffany, Zoffani or Zauffelij was a German neoclassical painter, active mainly in England...

. Art reviewers and observers like Horace Walpole were very critical of Devis's pictures. During the 1770s and 1780s, he seems to have made his living by restoring pictures. His most prominent job, done between 1777 and 1778, was restoring Sir James Thornhill

James Thornhill

Sir James Thornhill was an English painter of historical subjects, in the Italian baroque tradition.-Life:...

's paintings in the Painted Hall in the old Royal Hospital for Seamen, Greenwich (now the Old Royal Naval College). Devis retired to Brighton in 1783 and died there in 1787. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Mary Paddington, London.

Devis married Elizabeth Faulkner (1719–1788) at St Katharine's by the Tower‎, London, on 20 July 1742. They had twenty-two children, only six of whom survived past infancy. Two, Thomas Anthony Devis (1757–1810) and Arthur William Devis

Arthur William Devis

Arthur William Devis was an English painter of history paintings and portraits. He was appointed draughtsman in a voyage projected by the East India Company in 1783, under Captain Henry Wilson, in which he was wrecked on the Pelew Islands before proceeding to Canton and thence to Bengal...

 (1762–1822), became painters. Devis's half-brother Anthony Devis

Anthony Devis

Anthony Devis was an English landscape painter.Anthony Devis was born in Preston, Lancashire. His father's name was also Anthony Devis, who was a carpenter and town councillor in the town. Anthony junior was the older of two sons of his father's second marriage, to Anne Blackburne...

 (1729–1816) also was a painter.

External links

• Arthur Devis at Artcycolopaedia
• Arthur Devis at World Wide Art Resources
• Works by Arthur Devis at Tate Britain
  Tate Britain
  Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
  
  
• Devis's Mr and Mrs Atherton (c1743), at the Walker Art Gallery
  Walker Art Gallery
  The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England, outside of London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group, and is promoted as "the National Gallery of the North" because it is not a local or regional gallery but is part...