Half-length portrait, almost minature in scale, depicting a young man of about eighteen years old.
Anthony Devis (1729 - 1816) was the artist's half-brother, and the two worked together until Anthony established himself as an independent and successful landscape painter around 1760. The relaxed informality of the work in both mood and technique is seldom found in Arthur Devis' oeuvre.
Provenance
By descent from the sitter to Mrs Caroline Tupper; Christie's 1936 (wrongly attributed to Arthur William Devis); Thomas Agnew and Sons; private collection.