• Was a Lancashire-born British artist. • Half-brother of the painter Anthony Devis, and father of painters Thomas Anthony Devis and Arthur William Devis. • Arthur was taught by the Flemish painter Peter Tillemans. • Arthur Devis was born in Preston, Lancashire, the eldest son of Anthony Devis. • In 1745, he established a studio in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields in London, the location of an academy of painting opened in 1711. • Devis received his greatest number of commissions for portraits between 1748 and 1758. • In 1768 he became president of the newly founded Free Society of Artists. • He was never admitted to membership of the Royal Academy. • His marriage in 1742 produced twenty-two children, though few survived. • In 1783 Devis sold all the paintings in his possession and in 1787 died in retirement in Brighton.
