Artwork
Portrait of a Gentleman Netting Partridges
Portrait of a Gentleman Netting Partridges is an oil painting by the Rococo painting artist Arthur Devis. It dates from 1756 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower center: Art: Devis fe/1756
About this work
Technique & Style
The palette is typically cool and muted, dominated by soft greys, blues, and greens, with carefully observed but understated flesh tones.
Portrait of a Gentleman Netting Partridges is executed in oil on canvas, a standard support for British eighteenth-century portraiture. The canvas measures 69.9 cm in height by 97.8 cm in width, yielding a horizontal format suited to a half-length or three-quarter-length figure shown in an outdoor setting.
Devis's handling is characteristic of his restrained, decorative manner: thin, even paint application, crisp linear contours, and a smooth, enamel-like surface with minimal impasto. The palette is typically cool and muted, dominated by soft greys, blues, and greens, with carefully observed but understated flesh tones. Stylistically, the work belongs to the conversation-piece tradition, combining formal portraiture with a genre motif, the gentleman netting partridges, rendered with the same meticulous, miniaturist attention to costume, posture, and landscape detail that defines Devis's mature production.
History & Provenance
Arthur Devis painted Portrait of a Gentleman Netting Partridges in 1756, working in oil on canvas. The documented ownership chain begins with Miss P.A. Hatcher, from whom the painting entered the London auction market. It was offered at Christie, Manson & Woods on 29 June 1951 as Portrait of a Sportsman (lot 132) and was bought in. On 18 June 1954 it reappeared at the same house as lot 142, catalogued as Lord Brand, of Hurndall Park.
The dealer Edward Speelman of London subsequently acquired the work and sold it in 1960 to Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia. In 1964 Mellon gave the painting to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., where it is recorded with accession number 1964.1.1.
No record of an original commission or early ownership survives in the documented sources. The painting was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in 1976 as part of British Paintings from the Collection of Paul Mellon.
Overview
Arthur Devis created Portrait of a Gentleman Netting Partridges in 1756, an oil on canvas painting. This work depicts a male figure engaged in a sporting activity within a detailed natural setting. The composition highlights the subject's refined appearance and his interaction with the landscape, characteristic of portraiture from the mid-18th century.
Devis was known for his elegant, often small-scale, portraits and conversation pieces, reflecting the tastes of the Georgian era.
Subject & Meaning
The painting features a gentleman dressed in a blue coat, positioned within a verdant landscape. He holds a net, poised as if to capture partridges, suggesting an active engagement with nature and a leisure pursuit. The background includes trees and a body of water, establishing a tranquil outdoor scene that frames the central figure.
This portrayal likely aimed to convey the sitter's status, refinement, and connection to his estate or country pursuits.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Arthur Devis (19 February 1712 – 25 July 1787) was an English painter whose father, Anthony, was progenitor of what became a family dynasty of painters and writers.
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