Object Type
Group portraits like this oil painting of an unknown couple were popular from about 1730. Paintings showing proud owners at home were a major source of income for many painters in Britain in this period.
Subjects Depicted
Families appeared in these pictures either outdoors on their estates or in an interior reflecting their social rank. The 'settings' often did not represent real interiors, and Devis tends to show them as sparsely furnished. However, the detail of the paintings on the walls and the view of the park through a fashionable Venetian window imply that the background to the scene may be based on a real house. The woman is shown seated at a harpsichord and a man standing behind handing her sheet music, implying wealth, culture, taste, harmony, and leisure.
People
The painter Devis was famous for informal portraits like this one, known generally in the 18th century as 'conversation pieces'. these were usually small canvases depicting groups of figures taking tea, playing cards and music, in contrast to the solemn, formal and static nature of later 17th-century portraiture. Devis's customers tended to come from the class of wealthy landowners rather than from the nobility, though both groups often preferred the new, relaxed and agreeable way of being portrayed.
Physical description
An oil painting of a domestic interior with a woman seated at a harpsichord and a man standing behind handing her sheet music. There are paintings on the walls and there is a view of a landscape garden through a Venetian window.
Place of Origin
Great Britain, UK (painted)
Date
1749 (made)
Artist/maker
Arthur Devis, born 1712 - died 1787 (painter (artist))
Materials and Techniques
oil on canvas
Marks and inscriptions
'Artr. Devis fe. 1749'
Dimensions
Height: 115.5 cm, Width: 103.5 cm
Object history note
Bequeathed by Ernest E. Cook through the National Art Collections Fund, 1955
Descriptive line
Painting of a gentleman and a lady in an interior, the lady seated at a harpsichord. British, 1749. Painted by Arthur Devis.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum . London: V&A, 1985, p.64
The following is the full text of the entry:
"Arthur Devis 1711-1787
British School
THE DUET 1749
Signed on stretcher of harpsichord Artr Devis fe, 1749
Oil on canvas, 115.6 X 103.5 cm
P.31-1955
In England during the 1720s a new kind of portrait painting became popular: the 'conversation piece'. This was more intimate and informal than the conventional portrait, and the figures much less than life-size, often set back in space as if on a stage. The sitters were usually a family group seen in the privacy of their own park or country house, and the scene was often enlivened by some kind of narrative incident or social activity. This form of group portrait was derived from Dutch 17th-century interior views, and those 'conversations' set in parks and gardens had their origins in the fetes galantes of Watteau and his followers in France.
Arthur Devis, of Preston, Lancashire, was a master of this minor genre. Most of his contemporaries - Hogarth, Zoffany, Hayman, Mercier - painted some conversation pieces. But almost everyone of Devis's 281 known works are small full-length portraits. In most cases the sitters have been identified, but here we have an anonymous couple, the lady seated at the harpsichord, her companion, who has just laid down his violin, handing her a sheet of music. There is a greater degree of intimacy and communication between the sitters here than is usual with Devis: perhaps it is for this reason that the picture has also been known as The Love Song. The musical device was commonly used in painting as a symbol for love and harmony.
This canvas, which is set in a remarkably fine contemporary frame carved and gilded in the English Rococo style, is typical of Devis's work of this period. The couple are shown in large sparsely furnished room dominated by the view of the park through the tall Palladian window. The Italianate view paintings on the walls proclaim their fashionable taste and suggest that they have travelled on the Continent. The skilful handling of landscape and perspective, and the sophisticated rendering of colour and texture in the costume are surprising in view of the stiff and rather awkward posture of the doll-like figures. Devis had trained with the Dutch topographical painter Peter Tillemans (1684-1734): consequently he was competent with landscape and architecture, but had no experience of life drawing. This difficulty was exacerbated by his use of a wooden dummy as a substitute for the sitter when at work in the studio.
Though he moved to London in 1742, Devis seems not to have felt the influence of the liveliness and naturalism then being introduced from France. The animation and informality of the Rococo were clearly incompatible with his painstaking, though elegant, compositions. His provincial and self-conscious style looks back to Tudor and Jacobean portraits when costume, gesture and attributes are symbols of status. Likeness and personality are secondary to this theme.
Gillian Saunders"
Labels and date
British Galleries:
Group portraits like this painting of an unknown couple were popular from about 1730. Families appeared either outdoors on their estates or in an interior reflecting their social rank. The painter Devis was famous for such 'conversation pieces' showing families in interiors that suggest their 'genteel' lifestyle. The settings often did not represent real interiors. [27/03/2003]
Materials
Canvas; Oil colour
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Costume; Paintings; Room; Sheet music; Harpsichord; Landscape garden
Categories
British Galleries; Paintings; Music
Collection code
PDP
