The Doric temple at Studley Royal, Yorkshire

Anthony Devis came from a family of painters, his half-brother Arthur was the well known portrait painter and his nephew Arthur William was also a draughtsman and portrait painter who enjoyed some success in India. Anthony Devis was a landscape painter and travelled extensively throughout Britain. He exhibited infrequently at both the Free Society of Artists and at the Royal Academy until he retired from London to Surrey. He is credited with having drawn a number of the original views of the seats of English noblemen and gentry which decorated Wedgewood's celebrated dinner service commissioned by Catherine the Great.

A prolific painter, Devis produced a large number of drawings in his lifetime, executed in pen and ink, or pencil and many of them delicately coloured in a limited palette, as can be seen in the present example. It is characteristic of the large scale works by the artist and demonstrates his bold, loose and rather looped style of draughtsmanship.