Study for a Portrait of an Officer and His Wife

Study for a Portrait of an Officer and His Wife

Arthur Devis

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Devis was the leading painter of "conversation pieces"–small genrelike portraits depicting two or more figures-active in England in the mid-eighteenth century. He made this study while at the height of his powers, and, though the doll-like personages demonstrate his continued reliance on dressed mannequins known as "lay figures," they also reveal his gradual adoption of more naturalistic poses and landscape settings. Here, an officer and his wife lean on a garden balustrade. Their love of outdoor pursuits is indicated by the just-plucked flower in the lady's hand and by her husband's riding outfit, complete with crop, spurs, and fashionable frock coat. Few drawings by Devis survive, but this one suggests the artist may have prepared detailed studies of his sitters to scale before painting them. The figures are seventeen and a half inches high, exactly the same size as their counterparts in a related oil portrait (ca. 1756-58; location unknown) that once belonged to the marquess of Ripon.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study for a Portrait of an Officer and His WifeStudy for a Portrait of an Officer and His WifeStudy for a Portrait of an Officer and His WifeStudy for a Portrait of an Officer and His WifeStudy for a Portrait of an Officer and His Wife

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.