Portrait of a lady with a dog

WALL LABEL: Portrait of a lady with a dog

Arthur Devis produced some of the best-loved English portraits of the eighteenth century. Born in Lancashire in 1712, Devis moved to London at the age of sixteen or seventeen in 1728/29 and by 1742 had his own studio in Great Queen Street, London, in which he established a busy practice devoted to ‘conversation pieces’, or group portraits.

This example must date from the early-mid 1750s when Devis was beginning to place his single figures and family groups out of doors, gradually abandoning the large repertoire of props with which he had earlier indicated the sporting, intellectual or scientific interests of his sitters. Here, the lady is shown leaning against a stone parapet, next to a big stone plinth supporting a large urn. She has put her hat down beside her, and unfolded a white kerchief so as to provide a clean surface to lean on. On the viewer’s side of the stone balustrade her little white lap-dog waits patiently for something to happen.