English: Arthur William Devis (London 1762 - 1822)

Portrait of John Petrie and his wife Anne (nee Keble) and three of their children, their ayan and a musician

oil on canvas: 39 by 38 in.; 99 by 96.5 cm.

The nineteenth child of the painter Arthur Devis (1711-1787), Arthur William Devis first trained under his father and later at the Royal Academy in London. He ended up working and living in India after a rather circuitous route through the East. In 1781, the East India Company decided to send to China a small boat, The Antelope, on a mission to liaise with the Canton Council and also explore various exotic islands and coastal waterways on a longer route via the Pacific, which would require a draftsman aboard ship. Devis was approached to join the expedition and he set sail for China on 2 September 1782, arriving in Macao in June 1783. On the return trip two weeks later, the ship was wrecked on Oroolong, one of the Pelew Islands east of Borneo. While the crew was on Oroolong attempting to fix their vessel, Devis was taken by the people of the Island and began a number of portrait sketches, including some of Abba Thule, the King of Pelew, who was fascinated by the artist, and he developed a strong repore with the community there. It was a few months before the crew was able to set sail back to Macao and ultimately on a new boat back to England. Devis, however, had become enamored by the East and chose to remain in China for several months. In the autumn of 1784 he set off for India and in January 1785 was granted permission by the Bengal Government to remain in Calcutta.

In Calcutta, the artist enjoyed the business of a number of high profile Englishmen, including the Governor-General Warren Hastings and Sir Robert Chambers, the High Court Judge. As Devis rarely signed or dated his pictures, it is unclear of the dating of these and a number of his other portraits from India, including the present painting of the Petrie family. John Petrie traveled twice to India seeking fortune, first in 1766 and then again in the early 1770s; he and his wife were married in 1779 in Calcutta and remained there until his retirement in 1788. It would have been on this second sojourn that Petrie and his family sat to Devis.