The Clavey family in their garden at Hampstead
1754
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
124.5 × 99.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Everard Studley Miller Bequest, 1976
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Arthur Devis made his career in London as a painter par excellence of the ‘conversation piece’- small group portraits in domestic settings that became very popular in England in the first half of the eighteenth century. Charles Clavey, Esquire (1714–82), of Frome in Somerset and Hampstead, Middlesex, was a prominent citizen, and Master of the Worshipful Company of Masons. Devis has placed the Clavey family in what is probably their garden at Hampstead. This setting, in what appears to be a natural landscape, reflects the important shift in taste and garden design which took place in England in the 1750s.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in black paint l.l.: Art r (: under r) Devis.fe. / 1754.
Accession Number
E1-1976
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Portraits Relationships and Interactions
Subjects (specific)
children (people by age group) conversation pieces (portraits) families (kinship groups) family portraits gardens (open spaces) Hampstead (neighbourhood) London (inhabited place) United Kingdom (nation)
Movements
Georgian
Frame
English, 18th century, surface not original
Frame
The frame on the Devis is perhaps the finest of the three frames of this type in the collection. It is also the earliest if it is contemporary with the painting.
The frame on Reynold's Lady Frances Finch is very similar in detail though either through resurfacing or quality of making it lacks some of the crispness of detail seen in the Devis frame.
Frame Details
Framemaker
Unknown - 18th century
Date
c.1754
Materials
carved timber and gold leaf