Arthur Devis
Pioneer of English conversation piece portraits
Arthur Devis was a Lancashire-born artist, half-brother of the painter Anthony Devis (1729–1816), and father of painters Thomas Anthony Devis (1757–1810) and Arthur William Devis (1762–1822). His place in the pages of art history is generally as a painter of the type of portrait now called a conversation piece. Arthur was taught by the Flemish painter Peter Tillemans. Though his early work was in part as a landscape artist, he also drew upon family connections to win clientele for portraits of the members of pro-Jacobite Lancashire families. In fact, by 1737 he had gravitated to portrait painting, setting up a studio in London. In London Devis acquired a considerable reputation, though his success was to follow a certain parabola. Faced with other fashionable artistic currents represented by the work of such painters as Joshua Reynolds and Johann Zoffany, his commissions declined and he was obliged to move to restoring pictures. His marriage in 1742 produced twenty-two children, though few survived. He sold all the paintings in his possession in 1783 and in 1787 died in retirement in Brighton.
Relationship Network
Master student
- Peter Tillemans Master
Parent child
- Thomas Anthony Devis Child
- Arthur William Devis Child
Siblings
- Anthony Devis Elder
Artworks by this artist (28 total)
- Group portrait of the sons of Thomas Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster (1660-1723) and Albinia Farrington (1689-1745), with their maternal uncle, Thomas Farrington 1687-1758
- An Unknown Man With His Daughter 1744 - 1746
- William Farington Of Shawe Hall, Lancashire ca. 1743
- Leak Okeover, Rev. John Allen And Captain Chester At Okeover Hall, Staffordshire 1745 - 1747
- Sir John Shaw and his Family in the Park at Eltham Lodge, Kent 1761
- Mr. And Mrs. Hill 1750 - 1751
- Portrait of a lady and a gentleman, small full-length, leaning on a balustrade, with a spaniel, in a landscape
- Group portrait of Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster 1714-1778
- Mr And Mrs Atherton
- Robert Gwillym of Atherton and His Family 1745 - 1747
- Portrait Of A Family, Traditionally Known As The Swaine Family Of Fencroft, Cambridgeshire 1749
- Children In An Interior 1750 - 1751
- Portrait Of Richard Beard Streatfield Of Copford Lichfield, Staffordshire (1705-1770), With A View Of Table Bay, Cape Town Beyond 1746
- John Thomlinson and His Family 1745
- Probably John Trevor, third Baron Trevor, of St. Anne’s Hill, Surrey, and Trevalyn Hall, Denbighshire 1763
- Portrait of a Lady in a Landscape 1750
- An Unknown Man Seated at a Table 1744 - 1746
- Robert Gwillym of Atherton and William Farington of Werden 1743
- Portrait Of A Lady, Seated At A Harpsichord, Possibly Lucy, Duchess Of St. Albans (D. 1752) 1749
- Thomas Lister and Family at Gisburne Park 1740