Portrait of a lady, seated, full-length, in a white dress, beside a table with a basket of flowers, a sprig of orange blossom in her right hand, in an interior

Born in Preston, Lancashire, Arthur Devis studied under the sporting and topographical artist Peter Tillemans (1684-1734). By 1742 he was described in the Preston guild as 'of London, Painter', steadily developing a reputation as a meticulously accomplished portraitist in the conversation piece genre.
This painting is likely to date to the 1730s, early in Devis's career, when he had recently settled in London.