Arthur William Devis

Arthur William Devis. English ( b.1762 - d.1822 ). Portrait Of Charlotte Shore, Daughter Of The Governor General Of India, The 1st Lord Teignmouth. Oil On Canvas. Oval Image size 26.2 inches x 20.5 inches ( 66.5cm x 62cm ). Frame size 34.6 inches x 28.7 inches ( 88cm x 73cm ). Available for sale; this original oil painting is by Arthur William Devis and dates from around 1792 to 1795. This painting was created when the sitter and the artist were both in India, the sitter's father being the Governor General of India from 1793 to 1798. The painting is presented and supplied in a 19th century decorative frame. The painted surfaces and the frame have benefitted from some restoration, cleaning and conservation, which was performed on our instruction, supervision and approval. The canvas is lined. This antique painting is in very good condition, commensurate with its age. It wants for nothing and is supplied ready to hang and display. Provenance: By descent in the family of the sitter. Exhibited: Preston, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, 2000, Arthur William Devis, no.52. Charlotte was the eldest child of the first Baron Teignmouth, a title that was created in 1798 for Sir John Shore. The title became extinct in 1981 on the death of the seventh Baron. This portrait was almost certainly painted by Devis in India at a time when the sitter’s father was Governor General. As such, this is a historically significant piece. John Shore was an anti-slavery campaigner, born in London but brought up in Romford. In 1769 he went to work in Bengal where he was one of the first to learn a number of local languages. In 1785 he returned to England and on 14 February 1786 he married Charlotte, the only daughter of James Cornish, a medical practitioner at Teignmouth. The couple’s first child, Charlotte, the subject of this painting, was born the following year, on January 26, 1787. The family quickly returned to India, where John Shore served as Governor from 1793 to 1798. John and his wife had three sons and six daughters over the following fifteen years. Sir John Shore left Calcutta for the final time in March 1798, sailing back to England with his wife and young family. The family settled in Clapham and Sir John became the first president of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He was involved with the Clapham Sect and their anti-slavery campaign. This adorable original oil on canvas depicts Charlotte, the eldest child and first daughter of the first Lord Teignmouth, aged around five to seven years old. (On the basis that the family returned to England in 1798 when Charlotte would have been 11 years old, this painting was almost certainly created in India, during the time when her father was the Governor General of India. We also know that the artist was painting portraits in India the decade up to 1795, when he returned to England.) Charlotte is an attractive child, with thick dark brown curly hair framing her beautiful angelic features. She has fair skin, rosy cheeks and rosebud lips. Her dark eyes are wide and engaging. She has the sweetest expression on her face and we feel that she is kind and good natured. She is wearing a simple white gown, typical of the day, with a low neckline and three- quarter length sleeves and a pale blue sash around her waist. Arthur William Devis was one of the major English artists of the early nineteenth century, noted particularly for his portraits. His life was dynamic and engaging and he produced some of the definitive images of his generation. Devis was born in London on 10 August 1763, the nineteenth child of the artist Arthur Devis and his wife Elizabeth Faulkner. There were several artists in the family and Devis showed an early genius for art. He received some artistic training from his father and then studied at the Royal Academy Schools where he received a Silver Medal, and the good opinion of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Devis became extremely well-travelled, and even circumnavigated the world; when he was about twenty, he was appointed draughtsman on the British East India Company's ship Antelope in a voyage to the East Indies, under Captain Henry Wilson. The vessel was wrecked off the Pelew Islands, on which the crew took refuge. The island was uninhabited, but the sailors formed a friendly alliance with neighboroughing islanders and took part in the wars of the natives. The crew then built themselves a small vessel and sailed for Macao. During this voyage Devis received two wounds from arrows shot from the coast, one in his body, the other in his check, which caused a permanent injury to his jaw. Devis left the rest of the crew at Macao, spent a year in China, then proceeded to Bengal. He settled in India for ten years, establishing a modestly successful practice and receiving several lucrative commissions from British colonialists, of which this painting of young Charlotte is likely to be one. In 1795 he returned to England and worked with great zeal, earning himself a reputation as a serious artist. He painted a number of important historical pieces, including “The Conspiracy of Babington in the reign of Queen Elizabeth” and “Cardinal Langton and the Barons forcing King John to sign Magna”. He soon became established as one of the most talented British artists of his day. It is known that Devis created other portraits of the Shore family between 1797 and 1817. Devis is particularly noted for being involved in the creation of the posthumous cult of Horatio Nelson. After the battle of Trafalgar, he went out to meet the Victory, and painted the acclaimed piece ‘The Death of Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, K.B., in the cockpit of H.M.S. Victory, 21 Oct. 1805.’ For this work Devis made various sketches on board HMS Victory, including of Nelson’s body during the autopsy by Dr. Beatty, the ship’s surgeon. The completed picture has become the definitive image of Nelson’s heroic end; it was engraved by W. Bromley (1812), and presented by the Right Hon. Lord Bexley to the gallery of Greenwich Hospital in 1825. At 8 feet 7 inches by 6 feet 4 inches it is of stunning proportions. Devis’ large oil sketch for the piece was purchased by Queen Victoria, December 1852 Devis was also commissioned by Dr. Beatty to produce a half-length painting of Nelson as Vice Admiral, which was lent to Emma Hamilton, who later lost it whilst travelling. Either the original or a copy of this portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy two years after the Battle and many copies were made of it, including one in the National Maritime Museum. Devis exhibited a total of sixty-five pictures at the Royal Academy between 1779 and 1821. His equestrian portrait of ‘Alexander Sinclair Gordon, Esq.’, was engraved by Anthony Cardon in 1805; ‘The Battle of Waterloo,’ engraved by John Burnet in 1819; ‘An Indian Interior,’ by P. W. Tomkins in 1797; ‘The Little Mountaineer,’ by E. Scriven in 1809, who also engraved Devis's illustrations to J. J. Howard's translation of the ‘Metamorphoses of Ovid,’ London, 1807. Thus images of Devis’ work have become well known through the years. Today there is a portrait of Arra Kovger by Devis in the British Museum, and a portrait of Governor Herbert (painted in Calcutta in 1791) in the National Portrait Museum. Despite his artistic talent, Devis was seemingly completely incapable of managing his financial affairs. He therefore failed to maintain the status in society that his talent deserved. Where money was concerned, he was generous beyond his means and was sadly declared bankrupt in 1800. In 1804 he was imprisoned for debt. Between 1802 and 1810 he received continual assistance from John Biddulph of Ledbury, but these well-intentioned interventions did not produce the results hoped for, and Devis continued to be hopelessly unreliable. Towards the end of his career he at last began to receive Royal patronage, but it came too late. When he died suddenly from apoplexy in 1822 he left his second wife and young children penniless. He was buried in St. Giles’s churchyard. Works by Arthur Devis are now very much in demand; his depiction of Bengali weavers made an eyecatching £130,000 in a UK auction...