Portrait of a Man
Arthur Devis·1763
Historical Context
Arthur Devis's Portrait of a Man from 1763 exemplifies the straightforward single-figure conversation piece that formed the backbone of his production alongside family groups. While grander portraitists like Reynolds and Gainsborough were transforming the form with psychological depth, dramatic landscape settings, and allusive compositions, Devis continued to offer clients a more modest, precise, and honest likeness within a recognizable formula. His sitters, typically members of the untitled gentry, professional class, and successful merchants, wore their best clothes and stood in idealized settings that declared respectability without pretension. This directness makes his portraits valuable historical records even as it kept him below the top tier of his profession. By 1763 he was beginning to lose ground to the new generation of portraitists.
Technical Analysis
Devis's smooth, thinly painted surface gives his portraits their characteristic enamel-like quality. The figure is positioned in three-quarter view against a simple landscape or interior backdrop. Facial features are recorded with careful attention to individual likeness, and the costume is rendered with meticulous accuracy to declare the sitter's social station.
Provenance
Probably the Hon. Frederick Wallop (1870-1953), London [C.H. Collins Baker in a letter to Hans Huth, January 13, 1948, in curatorial file stated that he knew the picture when it was in Wallop’s collection]. Palser and Sons, 1919 [see New Haven 1980 and letter of March 19, 1993 from Gabriel Naughton of Agnew’s to Malcolm Warner in curatorial file]; sold by Palser and Sons to Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 1919 [see letter cited above]; sold by Agnew’s to Ehrich Galleries, New York, 1919 [see letter cited above]. Sold by Ehrich Galleries at Anderson Galleries, New York, November 8-9, 1922, lot 116 to A.C. Bower for $370 [the price is given in a annotated copy of the sale catalogue in Ryerson Library of the Art Institute and the buyer is given in New Haven 1980]. Emily Crane Chadbourne, Washington, D.C., by 1932; on loan to the Art Institute, 1932-1951; given to the Art Institute, 1951.
