Live Auction 20027Jasper Conran: The Collection Part I
ARTHUR DEVIS (PRESTON 1712-1787 BRIGHTON)
Lot 101

ARTHUR DEVIS (PRESTON 1712-1787 BRIGHTON)

Conversation piece with figures gathered around a harpsichord

Closed14 September 2021

Price Realised

GBP 125,000

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ARTHUR DEVIS (PRESTON 1712-1787 BRIGHTON)
Conversation piece with figures gathered around a harpsichord
oil on canvas
50 ½ x 40 ½ in. (128.2 x 102.9 cm.)
in a Kentian frame

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 6 July 1983, lot 227.
with Colnaghi, London.
Anonymous sale [Property from a Distinguished Private Collection]; Christie's, London, 8 June 2006, lot 5.
with Mallett, London, April 2007, where acquired by the present owner.

Specialist note


The interior in which the sitters are placed in the present work is very similar to those seen in the artist's portraits of Mr and Mrs Bull (1747) and Mr and Mrs Dashwood (1750) - the fireplace with its overmantel landscape and the view through to a window on the left-hand side recur in each. Devis regularly used the same interior designs for portraits of different sitters, and it is therefore difficult to base any definite identification of the sitters on them in the present picture.

Devis excelled as a portraitist, making a name for himself with his intricate conversation pieces. He rarely depicted recognisable interiors, but instead constucted detailed settings that helped to display his patrons' gentility, symbols of politesse that showed the sitters possessed all the necessary material as well as social graces.