Robert Gwillym of Atherton and His Family

Arthur Devis, 1712–1787, British, Robert Gwillym of Atherton and His Family, 1745 to 1747

Creator:: Arthur Devis, 1712–1787
Title:: Robert Gwillym of Atherton and His Family [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]
Former Title(s):: Robert and Elizabeth Gwillym and their Family, of Atherton Hall, Herefordshire [2007, Allen, The Sport of Collecting, Apollo]
Date:: 1745 to 1747
Medium:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 40 x 50 inches (101.6 x 127 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1977.14.51
Classification:: Paintings
Collection:: Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:: B1977.14.51FR
Subject Terms:: boys | brothers | children | costume | country house | daughters | dog (animal) | family | father | flowers (plants) | gesture | girls | group portrait | house | husband | landscape | men | portrait | sisters | sons | trees | wife | woman
Associated Places:: Atherton | England | United Kingdom | Wigan
Associated People:: Gwillym, Robert
Gwillym, Elizabeth
Atherton, Richard
Access:: Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:404
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

Elizabeth Gwillym (seated), who must have been born in the second decade of the eighteenth century, was the only surviving child of Richard Atherton of Atherton Hall, Lancashire. All six of her siblings died in infancy, and because her father was the last surviving male heir, the Atherton estate passed to Elizabeth, and thence to her eldest surviving son. Her husband, Robert Gwillym of Langstone, Herefordshire (wearing the tricorn hat), and his father, also called Robert, stand on the left. Her brother-in-law William, a deaf mute, stands on the right. Elizabeth Gwillym's four children (left to right) are baby William, Jane, Robert Vernon Gwillym Atherton (he added his mother's name to his own after he succeeded his mother as squire in 1763), and Elizabeth. The melancholy stumps of felled trees in the foreground may refer to Mrs. Gwillym's two older brothers-in-law, who predeceased her husband and their father.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005

Inventing Old Virginia : The Decline and Rise of a Pastoral Ideal (Virginia Historical Society, 2003-02-22 - 2003-06-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (Ferrara Galleries of Modern & Contemporary Art, 2001-02-25 - 2001-05-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (The Grand Rapids Art Museum, 1999-10-22 - 2000-01-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1998-02-08 - 1998-04-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Life in England 1750 - 1850 (Paul Mellon Arts Center, 1990-03-27 - 1990-05-21) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Arthur Devis (Harris Museum and Art Gallery, 1983-11-25 - 1984-01-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Arthur Devis (National Portrait Gallery, 1983-10-01 - 1983-11-12) [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]

Country Houses in Great Britain - Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 1979-10-10 - 1980-01-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Pursuit of Happiness - A View of Life in Georgian England (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-09-18) [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]

Brian Allen, The Sport of Collecting : Paul Mellon and British Art, Apollo, v.165,no.542, April 2007, p. 37, fig. 8, N1 A54 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Baskett, Painting in England: 1700-1850: the Collection of English paintings formed by Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon : on Exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, until August 18th, , Connoisseur, Vol. 153, London, June 1963, pp. 101,102, N1 C75 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Geoffrey W. Beard, The compleat gentleman, five centuries of aristocratic life , Rizzoli, New York, 1992, p. 68, pl. 43, HT653 G7 B415 1992 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Canaletto to Constable : paintings of town and country from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn., 1998, pp. 5-6, 39, pl. 7, ND1354.4 Y25 1998 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Collectors' Questions: Conversation Piece, Country Life (Archive 1901-2005), Vol. 134, Issue 3470, Time Inc. (UK) Ltd., London, 1963, p. 536, Available online at Country Life Archive [ORBIS]

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]

John Cornforth, The Informality of English Painting, Country Life (Archive 1901-2005), v. 137, Time Inc. (UK) Ltd., London, 1965, p. 18, 21, Fig. 4, Available online at Country Life Archive [ORBIS]

Country houses in Great Britain., Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1979, pp. 5, 10, 16, 37-38, 108, no. 16, pl. 16, N6764 Y34 1979 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Silvano D'Alto, Paesaggio e societa` in Inghilterra, fra citta` e campagna, Servizio Editoriale Universitario, Pisa, 2003, Fig. 8, N8213 .D34 2003 [ORBIS]

Ellen G. D'Oench, Arthur Devis (1712-1787): master of the Georgian conversation piece, , University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1982, p. 62, 64, 86, 95, 339, No. 71, 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. 8-9, 50-51, 84, cat. no. 15; AD list no. 71, pl. 15, NJ18 D5151 D64 OVERSIZE [ORBIS]

Anthony Fletcher, Gender, sex, and subordination in England 1500-1800, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1995, p. ix, No. 38, HQ1075.5 E5 F54 1995 (YCBA) [YCBA]

James A. Ganz, Edouard Baldus at the Château de la Faloise, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass. New Haven London, 2007, fig. 30, TR647 .B34 2007 (LC) [ORBIS]

Genius Defined, Time, vol. 82, no.. 1, July 5, 1963, p. 62, V 2333 (YCBA) Hard Copy also available at SML - AP2 T55 + [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. viii, 58, Cat no. 18, Film B148 YCBA [ORBIS]

John Harris, The artist and the country house, a history of country house and garden view painting in Britain, 1540-1870 , Sotheby Parke Bernet, London Totowa, N.J., 1979, pp. 165, 216, no. 231, fig. 231, N6764 H36 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Olwen H. Hufton, The Prospect Before Her: A History of Women in Western Europe, HarperCollins, London, 1995, p. x, No. 23, HQ1587 H94 1995 [ORBIS]

E. D. H. Johnson, Paintings of the British social scene, from Hogarth to Sickert , Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1986, p. 58, 59, Fig. 29, ND1452 G7 J64 (YCBA) [YCBA]

David Kuchta, The Three-Piece Suit and Modern Masculinity: England 1550-1860, University of California Press, Berkley, 2002, p. 125, GT733 K83 2002 [ORBIS]

Penelope McElwee, The non-representation of the agricultural labourers in 18th and 19th century English paintings : an exploration into the artistic conventions followed by the aristocracy and landowning classes in representations of the agricultural labourers ..., Newcastle upon Tyne, 2016, pp. 13-14, 18, fig. 1-3, NX650.L32 M34 2016 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christopher Neve, Arthur Devis: A Minor English Master, Country Life (Archive 1901-2005), Time Inc. (UK) Ltd., London, 1972, p. 44, Fig. 3, Available online at Country Life Archive [ORBIS]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , 1,2, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 120 (v.1), no. 227, pl. 84, 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. 56 (v.1), no. 204, pl. back cover, ND466 R68 1964/65 (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. 60, N1 B87 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Sydney H Paviere, The Devis family of painters, F. Lewis, Publishers, Limited, Leigh-on-Sea, 1950, p. 19, 45, No. 64, NJ18 D515 P28 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Gillian Perry, Placing faces, the portrait and the English country house in the long eighteenth century , Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2013, pp. 3-4, covers :front & back, ND1314 .P533 2013 (YCBA) [YCBA]

J. H. Plumb, The pursuit of happiness : a view of life in Georgian England : an exhibition selected from the Paul Mellon collection, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 59, 123, no. 135, N6766 Y34 1977 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Polite society by Arthur Devis, 1712-1787, portraits of the English country gentleman and his family : catalogue of the exhibition, The Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, Lancs., October 1st-November 12th, 1983, National Portrait Gallery, London, November 25th, 1983-January 29th, 1984 , Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston (Lancashire), 1983, p. 35, 45, 81, No. 13, NJ18 D5151 S37 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Kate Retford, The art of domestic life, family portraiture in eighteenth-century England , Yale University Press, New Haven, London, 2006, pp. 153, 154, fig. 110, ND1313.4 .R48 2006 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Kate Retford, The Conversation Piece Making Modern Art in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2017, p. 136, fig. 100, ND1314.4 .R48 2017 (LC) Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Desmond Shawe-Taylor, The Georgians, eighteenth-century portraiture & society , Barrie & Jenkins, London, 1990, p. 127, 128, 195, pl. 87, ND1314.4 S52 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Roy C. Strong, The British portrait, 1660-1960, Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991, p. 71, pl. 66, ND1314 B743 1991 (YCBA) [YCBA]

The Yale Center for British Art, An Anniversary Celebration of Paul Mellon's Great Legacy , Apollo, April 2007, p. 37, fig. 8, N5220 M552 A7 OVERSIZE (YCBA) Appeared as April 2007 issue of Apollo;; all of the articles may also be found in bound Apollo Volume [N1 A54 165:2 +] [YCBA]

Beth Fowkes Tobin, Colonizing nature, the tropics in British arts and letters, 1760-1820 , Academy, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2005, p. 85, fig. 6, PR129 T76 T63 2005 (YCBA) Also available online - Project Muse (ORBIS) [YCBA]

Florence Wood, A Lancashire Gentleman: The Letters and Journals of Richard Hodgkinson, 1763-1847, NH Alan Sutton, Phoenix Mill (England), pl. 8, DA506 H63L25 1992 [ORBIS]

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. 75, pl. back cover, ND466 Y35 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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