A painter in oils of portraits, figure subjects and genre, Anthony Devas was born on 8th January 1911 at Bromley, Kent and educated at Repton. He studied at the Slade in London, where he met his future wife the artist and writer Nicolette (Macnamara) Devas. Anthony Devas went on to become an extremely succesful artist. Best known for portrait commissions, his ability to capture children was particularly noted. He was also a passionate and prolific painter of flowers, and a keen gardener who won the annual Chelsea 'best window boxes' competition on a number of occasions. A gregarious and popular person and a committed member of the Chelsea Arts Club, he wrote regularly in the press on the arts scene, particularly as it affected jobbing artists like himself. Although associated with the Euston Road Group, he was never really very interested in artistic ‘isms’, and always managed to earn enough through direct sales and commissions to be able to avoid the involvement in art teaching and the arts schools which debilitated so many of his contemporaries. Devas exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1940 and was elected member of the New English Art Club in 1942, Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1945 and Associate of the Royal Academy in 1955. In 1957 he painted a portrait of the Queen for the Honorable Artillery Company. Anthony Devas is represented in several public collections. A painting entitled Mrs Wilson was purchased by the chantry Bequest in 1939. He died in London on 21st December 1958 at the young age of 47, following a number of years of ill health.
