Lot 201 , Arthur William Devis (British, 1762-1822), 'The Weavers’, oil on canvas, 44 x 59.5cm

Arthur William Devis (British, 1762-1822)
'The Weavers’
oil on canvas
44 x 59.5cm
£5,000-8,000
Painted in Bengal in 1792, as part of 26 studies illustrating the ‘’Arts, manufactures and agriculture of Bengal’’.
The artist, who was both the son and pupil of the renowned portrait painter Arthur Devis (c.1711-1787), accompanied an expedition to the East Indies in 1784 as a draughtsman. He gained notable recognition for his work in India from 1785 to 1795, primarily for his portraits, also producing a notable series of thirty artworks depicting the 'arts, manufactures, and agriculture of Bengal'.

Six of Devis’s Indian genre pictures are now in British public collections; they are:- ‘’A Blacksmith’s Shop beside Village Dwellings in Bengali’, oil on panel, 44.5 60cm, Victoria and Albert Museum; ‘’Assayer at Work in the Mint, Calcutta’’, oil on panel, 47 x 38cm, The Ashmolean Museum; ‘’Carpet Weaver, Patna’’, oil on canvas, 44 x 60cm, British Library, ‘’Potter Engaged in Throwing a Pot on a Wheel’’, oil on canvas, 43.5 x 59cm, British Library; ‘’Scene in a Brazier’s Shop in Bengal’’, oil on teak panel, 45 x 61cm, Victoria and Albert Museum; and ‘’Stamping Coinage in the Mint Calcutta’’, oil on canvas, 44.5 x 60cm.

Provenance: Purchased by the current owners at Sotheby’s, 21st March, 1979, (catalogue front cover).

Condition:
Oil on canvas relined 20 - 30 year or so ago, slight outward bulge to the canvas, paint looks clean with a fine but stable craquelure running throughout, housed in a modern gilt frame.

Sold for £130,000