This group portrait shows robert james, together with his wife mary and two daughters elizabeth and ann. James, aged fifty-one at this time, was for many years secretary to the east india company. Devis specialized in painting fashionable small-scale portrait groups or 'conversation pieces’ set in domestic interiors or spacious parkland. Although such pictures were intended to portray family groups in a private setting, they can often appear quite formal, and in devis’s case, even stiff. However, for a man such as james, a display of material wealth and worldly success was perhaps more meaningful than family intimacy. Object Type: painting. Genre: family portrait. Date: 1751. Dimensions: height: 98.4 cm (38.7 in); width: 124.5 cm (49 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Collection: Tate Britain. Arthur Devis 13
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