Arthur William Devis

1762 – 1822

English painter, part of a family of painters, son of Arthur Devis. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1774 and soon attracted the attention of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He exhibited various drawings at the Free Society between 1775 and 1780 and at the Royal Academy in 1781-82. In 1782 he joined an expedition to the East Indies as a draughtsman. When the ship foundered he seized the opportunity to live and work in Canton for a year. In November 1784 he sailed to India, where he painted a portrait of Warren Hastings (New Delhi, Rashtrapati Bhavan). Works such as Colin Shakespear (c. 1785) suggest the influence of Johan Zoffany, who was in India at the same time. The relaxed pose of the youthful Shakespear, depicted against a landscape background, differs dramatically from the stiff sitters of Devis's father, but the attention to detail and treatment of drapery shows parental influence.

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