Important British Pictures

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Lot 144
  • 144

Arthur Devis 1711-1787

Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
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Description

  • Arthur Devis
  • Portrait of a gentleman, with his wife and child, possibly Captain the Hon. the Rev. Robert Cholmondeley and his wife, Mary
  • oil on canvas, in a carved wood frame

Provenance

Mr and Mrs Eric Bullivant, their sale, Sotheby's, 17th July 1974, lot 99 (as Capt.. the Hon. Rev. Robert Cholmondeley and his wife Mary)

Exhibited

Ellen G. D'Oench, Arthur Devis (1712-1787): Master of the Georgian Conversation Piece, PhD Thesis, Yale University, 1979, no.249;
Ellen D'Oench, 'List of Works by Arthur Devis', The Conversation Piece, Arthur Devis & His Contemporaries, 1980, p.92, no.249

Catalogue Note

Captain the Hon. The Rev. Robert Cholmondeley was the second son of George, 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley, and his wife, Lady Mary Walpole, daughter of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford.  He served in the army before becoming the Rector of St Andrew's, Hertford.  On 30th November 1746 he married Mary Woffington, daughter of Arthur Woffington, and the sister of Peg Woffington, the famous actress.  She bore him, together with other children, George James, Frances Sophia and Hester Frances.

The picture was sold in 1974 from the collection of Mr and Mrs Eric Bullivant, and the sitters were then identified as the above members of the Cholomondeley family.  Ellen D'Oench (Op. Cit.) doubted this on the basis that the painting dates from c.1741-43, so it could perhaps represent another member of the family.