Study for a Portrait of an Officer and His Wife

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.

Credit: Purchase, Jeffrey L. Berenson Gift, 2004