Signed l.r.: Devas

Oil on canvas, 53 by 71 cm (20 ¾ by 28 ins)

Provenance: Augustus John

The present work appears to have once belonged to the painter Augustus John who Devas first met through Nicolette Macnamara, his fellow student at the Slade School of Art who he married in 1931. This unusual early conversation piece shows the strong influence of art of the period, particularly the Bloomsbury Group who were particularly prominent by the 1930s, and is quite distinct from the portrait work that Devas executed from the late 1930s and which is more closely associated with the Euston Road School. Burvale House was Devas’s family home in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey. The sitters in this group portrait are not identified although could include the painter’s sisters.