Anthony Devis Peasant Family with Dog

An original early 19th-century pen & ink drawing, Anthony Devis, Peasant Family with Dog.

A sweet bucolic figure study in pen and ink and watercolour wash by the English landscape painter Anthony Devis (1729–1816). This small family grouping, of mother, father, child and dog, is likely to be a study to be worked up by Devis in a larger composition.

Devis's output mainly comprised charming landscapes inspired by Dutch and Italianate models, including large finished works in crayon and wash, and fresh studies in pen and ink enlivened with touches of colour.

Born in Preston, Lancashire, Devis produced many landscape paintings between 1760 and 1780, mainly for landowners in Northern England. He is known to have been working in London by 1742, when he was still only thirteen and again from 1762, living in Gloucester Street. He exhibited paintings at the Free Society of Artists in 1761 and 1763, and at the Royal Academy in 1772 and 1781.

Among his most famous works are a series of designs for a dinner and dessert service, commissioned by Catherine the Great of Russia from the English porcelain manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood: its decoration featured views of British country houses, and also bore a standard green frog device. Known subsequently as the Green Frog Service, it is regarded as one of Wedgwood’s masterpieces.

In 1780 Anthony Devis retired to Albury House near Guildford, Surrey where he made a collection of paintings and curios. He also built a painting-room on a hill near Albury. His brother was the celebrated portrait painter Arthur Devis (1712–1787).

His work can be found in numerous public collections, including the British Museum, Tate, V&A, National Museum Wales and The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Provenance: From the Collection of Dr E.M. Brett of Hampstead.