A Couple, Traditionally Identified as Mr. and Mrs. Hill

Arthur Devis, 1712–1787, British, A Couple, Traditionally Identified as Mr. and Mrs. Hill, between 1750 and 1751

Creator:: Arthur Devis, 1712–1787
Title:: A Couple, Traditionally Identified as Mr. and Mrs. Hill [YCBA, 2024]
Former Title(s):: Mr. and Mrs. Hill [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]
Date:: between 1750 and 1751
Materials & Techniques:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 30 x 25 inches (76.2 x 63.5 cm), Frame: 36 3/4 x 32 x 3 inches (93.3 x 81.3 x 7.6 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:: Inscribed in black ink on label on back of painting: "Property of | Major Henry Adair Parkyns Heaslop R.A. | [indecipherable]"
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1981.25.226
Classification:: Paintings
Collection:: Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:: B1981.25.226FR
Subject Terms:: book | conversation piece | couple | cups | etiquette | fireplace | food | house | interior | Italianate | man | milk jug | octavo | oval | painting (visual work) | portrait | room | seated | standing | summer | table | tea | tea kettle | tea set | teapot | thread | vase | white (color) | woman | yellow
Associated People:: Hill, George (ca. 1716–1808), lawyer and eccentric
Hill, Anna Barbara, daughter and heir of Thomas Medlycote of Cottingham, Northamptonshire, wife of George Hill
Access:: Not on view
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:101
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

Arthur Devis was one of the most prolific painters of conversation pieces, often working for the families of country gentry with aspirations to refinement and polite taste. Mr. and Mrs. Hill are just such a couple, posed before an Italianate landscape painting in a stucco frame and a Chinese vase in the fireplace. A table made from West Indian mahogany is set for tea with a Chinese porcelain service, an English redware teapot in imitation of Chinese ceramics, and a silver milk jug. Mr. Hill’s stance reflects formal etiquette for gentlemen, rules that Devis continued to use in his paintings while poses used by other artists in their portraits began to suggest greater spontaneity and psychological depth. In a period when Britons worried about the enervating effects of luxury, Devis provides an image of Mr. and Mrs. Hill as models of polite rectitude. Despite their consumption of refined objects from around the world, the interior remains remarkably austere, a reflection of the couple’s own moral probity.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

Mr. and Mrs. Hill pose in the corner of a room which, though sparsely decorated, contains a large oval Italianate landscape painting mounted as an overmantel and a Chinese vase in the fireplace-it must be summer. Seven exquisitely painted cups and saucers on the tea table indicate that guests are expected, while Mr. Hill has placed his book (octavo) on the mantelpiece. His pose reflects nearly contemporaneous rules for gentlemen as set out in etiquette manuals. This does not necessarily suggest that Mr. Hill was trying especially hard, nor that Devis felt it necessary to underline the point. Nevertheless, Mr. Hill's right-angled feet, and the position of his hand in his waistcoat, are what Nivelon's Rudiments of Genteel Behavior (1737) recommended.

Gallery label for Paul Mellon's Legacy: A Passion for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)

Arthur Devis was the most prolific painter of conversation pieces, having produced more than three hundred in various standard sizes, such as this, mostly for members of the largely Tory landed gentry and professional classes. The genre did not appeal so much to Whig grandees. Although he studied and perfected many of the techniques of the Dutch Old Masters, Devis was uneasy drawing from the live model, possibly because of his training as a miniature painter. He relied on a small wooden lay figure or mannequin that he kept in the studio and, when necessary, dressed it in miniature costumes. In this two-figure conversation piece, Mr. and Mrs. Hill pose in the corner of a room which, though sparsely decorated, contains a large oval Italianate landscape painting mounted as an overmantel and a Chinese vase in the fireplace.-.it must be summer. Seven exquisitely painted cups and saucers on the tea table indicate that five guests are expected, while Mr. Hill has placed his book (octavo) on the mantelpiece. His pose reflects nearly contemporaneous rules for gentlemen as set out in etiquette manuals. This does not necessarily suggest that Mr. Hill was trying especially hard, nor that Devis felt it necessary to underline the point. Nevertheless, Mr. Hill's right-angled feet, and the position of his hand in his waistcoat, are what François Nivelon's 'Rudiments of Genteel Behavior' (1737) recommended. It is tempting to identify the sitters as the Tory lawyer and eccentric George Hill (ca. 1716.-.1808) and his wife, Anna Barbara, daughter and heir of Thomas Medlycote of Cottingham, Northamptonshire.

Angus Trumble

John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 249-50, no. 18, pl. 18, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Created by Arthur Devis (1712-1787), the artist; … ; acquired by Major Henry Adair Parkyns Heaslop (1917-2009) [1]; …; acquired by Frank Partridge & Sons, 1957 [2]; acquired by Amyas Phillips (1891-1962) of Phillips of Hitchin Ltd. by 1958; acquired by John Mitchell & Son, New Bond Street, London by 1961 [a]; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907-1999), 1961 b]; by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art, 1981.

Notes:
[1] Per a handwritten label on the painting's verso. Like him, Henry's father Adair Colpoys Heaslop (1875-1944), grandfather Colpoys Parkyns Heaslop (1837-1906), and great-grandfather John Colpoys Heaslop (1795-1867) all served in either the Royal Artillery or Royal Navy.
[2] When they exhibited it on June 14 in their galleries on New Bond Street, London, per "Rare French Furniture and English Paintings," The Antique Collector 28, no. 6 (1957): 100.

Citations:
[a] John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 249-50, no. 18, pl. 18
[b] Ibid

No More Fog at the Channel - Holbein to Hockney - 500 Years of British Art (Fundación Juan March, 2012-10-05 - 2013-01-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Juxtapositions (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-11-19 - 1998-01-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Conversation Piece - Arthur Devis & His Contemporaries (Yale Center for British Art, 1980-10-01 - 1980-11-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Painting in England 1700-1850 - From The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

A Great Collection of British Pictures in Virginia, The Times (London), , May 1, 1963, p. 5, Times Digital Archive [ORBIS]

Art Across North America, Apollo, vol. 113, no. 228, February 1981, pp. 118-9, fig. 3, N1 A54 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 249-250, no. 18, pl. 18, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ann Bermingham, Landscape and ideology, the English rustic tradition, 1740-1860 , Thames and Hudson, London, 1987, pp. 26-28, fig. 8, ND1354.4 B47 1987 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ann Bermingham, The Ideology of Landscape: Gainsborough, Constable and the English Rustic Tradition [Harvard University PhD Dissertation], Ann Arbor, 1982, p. 21, 250, Cat no. 10, Film B9 YCBA [ORBIS]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 257, 259, pl. VI, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ching-Jung Chen, Tea Parties in Early Georgian Conversation Pieces, British Art Journal, vol. 10, Spring / Summer 2009, p. 35, fig. 7, N6761 B74 OVERSIZE (YCBA) Also available online : ORBIS [YCBA]

Ching-Jung Chen, The early Georgian conversation piece : Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, 2001, p. 190, 690, fig. 36, Available online : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses [ORBIS]

Viccy Coltman, Classical sculpture and the culture of collecting in Britain since 1760, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009, p. 161, pl. 19, NB87.G7 C658 2009 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 86-87, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Matthew Craske, Conversations and Chimneypieces: the imagery of the hearth in eighteenth-century English family portraiture, British Art Studies, Issue 2, Spring 2016, pages are unnumbereed, fig. 1, http://dx.doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-02/mcraske [Website]

Ellen G. D'Oench, Arthur Devis (1712-1787): master of the Georgian conversation piece, , University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1982, p. 94-95, 347, no. 79, illus. no. 100, NJ18 D5151 D635 1979A (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ellen G. D'Oench, The Conversation Piece: Arthur Devis & his contemporaries, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1980, pp. 14-15, 16-17, 56, 84, cat. no. 23, AD List no. 70, pl. 23, NJ18 D5151 D64 OVERSIZE [ORBIS]

Ralph Edwards, Georgian Conversation Pictures, Apollo, v.105, no. 182, April 1977, pp. 257, 259, pl. VI, N1 A54 105:2 + (YCBA) Another copy of this article may be found in a separately bound and catalogued copy of this issue located on the Mellon Shelf [call number : N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA)] [YCBA]

Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p. 14, ND466 .G67 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Margaret Ann Hanni, The Marriage Portrait in eighteenth-century England [PhD Dissertation, Boston University], Ann Arbor, 1996, p. vii, 32, 143, Cat no. 10, Film B148 YCBA [ORBIS]

Beatrice Hohenegger, Steeped in History, The Art of Tea , Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, 2009, pp. 152-3, GT2905 .S84 2009 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Mr. and Mrs Hill About to Give Tea to Five Guests, Connoisseur, vol. 145, June 1960, p. XL VIII, J10 C762 + (SML) [ORBIS]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 121 (v.1), no. 229, pl. 74, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, The Royal Academy of Arts Winter Exhibition 1964-65., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 1964, p. 55 (v.1), no. 201, N5220.M45 R69 1964 (YCBA) [YCBA]

R. Parkinson, Arthur Devis and His Contemporaries: Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn: Exhibit, Burlington Magazine, v. 123, no. 934, January 1981, p. 58-61, N1 B87 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

R. Parkinson, Contemporaries at the Yale Center for British Art, Burlington Magazine, Vol. 123, No. 934, January 1981, p. 61, N1 B87+ YCBA [ORBIS]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v.1, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Gillian Perry, Placing faces, the portrait and the English country house in the long eighteenth century , Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2013, pp. 47-48, 55-56, fig. 8, ND1314 .P533 2013 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Kate Retford, From the Interior to Interiority: The Conversation Piece in Georgian England, Journal of Design History, Vol. 20 Issue 4, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 296, NK1175 .J68 Haas Also available online [ORBIS]

Kate Retford, The Conversation Piece Making Modern Art in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2017, p. 188, fig. 142, ND1314.4 .R48 2017 (LC) Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Charles Saumarez Smith, Eighteenth-century decoration: design and the domestic interior in England, , Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1993, pp. 142-43, no. 185, NK2043 A1 S28 1993 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Stacey Sloboda, Chinoiserie : commerce and critical ornament in eighteenth-century Britain, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2014, pp. 79-80, fig. 2.13, NK1443 S56 2014 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Roy C. Strong, The British portrait, 1660-1960, Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991, pp. 142-43, pl. 128, ND1314 B743 1991 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Treasure Island: British Art from Holbein to Hockney, Madrid : Fundacio´n Juan March 2012, 2012, p. 136, No. 36, N6761 T74 2012 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Angus Trumble, Angus Trumble on "Mr. and Mrs. Hill", October 14, 2011 , Accessed November 1, 2022, https://britishart.yale.edu/videos/angus-trumble-mr-and-mrs-hill [Website]

Alice Winchester, English Conversation Pieces from the Mellon Collection, Antiques, vol. 83, April 1963, p 445, NK1125 A3 v. 83 OVERSIZE (HAAS) [ORBIS]

Yale Center for British Art, Selected paintings, drawings & books, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. 14, N590.2 A82 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon : [exhibition at] Yale University Art Gallery, April 15-June 20, 1965, , vol. 1, W. Clowes and sons, New Haven, 1965, p. 21 (v.1), no. 72, ND466 Y35 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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