A Windswept Girl in a Turban walking with a Dog
attributed to Arthur William Devis (London 1762 - London 1822)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1785 - circa 1795
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
940 x 686 mm
Place of origin
India
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 207810
Caption
This striking painting of a girl walking her dog was painted by Lancashire artist Arthur William Devis (1763–1822), 19th son of the great conversation-piece portrait artist, Arthur Devis (1712 – 1787). At the age of 20, Arthur junior travelled to the East Indies but became shipwrecked and was stranded on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean for a year. Eventually he arrived in India in 1785 where he practiced as a portrait painter for ten years. This painting was presumably commissioned during that time.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, A Windswept Girl in a Turban walking with a Dog, attributed to Arthur William Devis (London 1763 – London 1822), 1785 - 95. The slightly exotic buildings, combined with the fantastic turban, suggest that this portrait may have been painted in India. A.W. Devis, son and pupil of Arthur Devis, practised in India in 1785-1795, and this picture has much in common with his portraits of children.
Provenance
"sale of a mansion at Tattershall, near Chester; Miss Margaret Roberts, The Manor House, Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire; F. C. Graham Menzies in 1930 (lent to Park Lane exh); bought by Captain Bambridge from Knoedler, 7 December 1942 for £400; bequeathed by Elsie Kipling, Mrs George Bambridge (1896 - 1976), daughter of Rudyard Kipling, to the National Trust together with Wimpole Hall, all its contents and an estate of 3,000 acres
Credit line
Wimpole Hall, The Bambridge Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
attributed to Arthur William Devis (London 1762 - London 1822), artist