Arthur William Devis
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Devis's posthumous portrait of Horatio Nelson

Sir William Beatty, Victory's surgeon at Trafalgar (1806)

Arthur William Devis (10 August 1762, London - 11 February 1822, London) was an English painter of history paintings and portraits. He was appointed draughtsman in a voyage projected by the East India Company in 1783, in which he was wrecked on the Pelew Islands before proceeding to Canton and thence to Bengal. He painted portraits and historical subjects, sixty-five of which he exhibited (1779-1821) at the Royal Academy.

Family

He was the nineteenth child of the artist Arthur Devis and his wife Elizabeth Faulkner.

Life

Devis's Death of Nelson

He is noted for being involved in the creation of the posthumous cult of Horatio Nelson. He painted a heroic Death of Nelson, for which he made sketches (including one of Nelson's body during the autopsy by Dr Beatty, the ship's surgeon) on board HMS Victory after her return from Trafalgar^[1]. He also painted Dr Beatty, and was commissioned by him to produce a half-length painting of Nelson as vice-admiral, which he lent to Emma Hamilton (who later lost it in an accident whilst travelling). Either the original or a copy of this portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy two years after the Battle and many copies were made of it (Lord Howe owned one, and another ended up in the collection of the National Maritime Museum), and it was also engraved in Beatty's account of Nelson's death.

Notes

1. ^ Devis's Death of Nelson at the National Maritime Museum

External links

• Dictionary of National Biography entry for Arthur William Devis

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