1 OF 4 
John Scarlett Davis
1 of 4 portraits by John Scarlett Davis
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- Extended catalogue entry
Regency Portraits Catalogue
John Scarlett Davis
by John Scarlett Davis
1828
5 1/2 in. x 5 1/4 in. (140 mm x 133 mm)
NPG 5545
Inscriptionback to top
Signed and dated lower left: J Scarlet Davis/1828
Davis usually spelt his mother's name 'Scarlett'.
This portraitback to top
The drawing was probably a preliminary study for a self-portrait exhibited in Leeds in 1828. In a letter to his father, postmarked 10 May 1828, he sent a rough sketch of the exhibits as they hung on the wall with the centre-piece no.1, 'A Head a Study from Nature' (reproduced Hilda Finberg, 'Scarlett Davis as a Portrait Painter', in Apollo, XVII, 1933, p 152). This was at the time when he was turning from portrait-painting to his better-known architectural subjects and interiors of churches and picture galleries. His iconography, as far as is known at present, consists entirely of self-portraits of which the following are recorded in the NPG archive: (1) c.1820 in Hereford Art Gallery, oil head and shoulders aged 16 (F. C. Morgan, Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Works of John Scarlett Davis, Hereford Art Gallery, 1937, no. 2). (2) c.1825 in Leominster Museum, pencil and brown wash drawing, head and shoulders aged about 21. (3) 1828, NPG 5545. (4) 1829 in British Museum, sepia wash drawing, half-length seated aged 25 (Laurence Binyon, Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists … in the British Museum, II, p 23 and reproduced Hilda Finberg, 'Scarlett Davis as a Portrait Painter', in Apollo, XVII, 1933, p 150). (5) c.1830 in Leominster Museum, oil half-length seated to right possibly worked up from the British Museum drawing (reproduced Country Life, 27 June 1974, p 1698). (6) undated, in Yale Center for British Art (B1975.4.246).
Provenanceback to top
Sotheby's 19 November 1981 (91) bought Agnew for Derek Jennings and bought from him 1982.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.