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Lot Essay
The artist was the son and pupil of the celebrated portrait painter Arthur Devis (c.1711-1787). He travelled to the East Indies as draughtsman to an expedition in 1782, and is perhaps most well-known for the success he achieved painting in India between 1785 and 1795. In addition to portraits, he executed a remarkable series of pictures illustrating the 'arts, manufactures and agriculture of Bengal'.
Six of Devis’s Indian genre pictures are now in British public collections; they are A Blacksmith's Shop beside Village Dwellings in Bengal, oil on panel, 44.5 x 60.5 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum; Assayer at Work in the Mint, Calcutta, oil on panel, 47 x 38.1 cm, The Ashmolean Museum; Carpet Weavers, Patna, oil on canvas, 44 x 60 cm, British Library; Potter Engaged in Throwing a Pot on a Wheel, oil on canvas, 43.4 x 59 cm, British Library; Scene in a Brazier's Shop in Bengal, oil on teak panel, 45 x 61 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum; Stamping Coinage in the Mint, Calcutta, oil on canvas, 44.5 x 60 cm.
Six of Devis’s Indian genre pictures are now in British public collections; they are A Blacksmith's Shop beside Village Dwellings in Bengal, oil on panel, 44.5 x 60.5 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum; Assayer at Work in the Mint, Calcutta, oil on panel, 47 x 38.1 cm, The Ashmolean Museum; Carpet Weavers, Patna, oil on canvas, 44 x 60 cm, British Library; Potter Engaged in Throwing a Pot on a Wheel, oil on canvas, 43.4 x 59 cm, British Library; Scene in a Brazier's Shop in Bengal, oil on teak panel, 45 x 61 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum; Stamping Coinage in the Mint, Calcutta, oil on canvas, 44.5 x 60 cm.