John Scarlett Davis (1 September 1804 - 29 September 1845), or Davies, was an English painter of the first half of the nineteenth century.
Davis was born in Leominster, the son of James Davis, a watchmaker; Scarlett was his mother's maiden name. At the age of eleven, Davis won an award from the local society for the encouragement of the arts. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Art School in London, and began exhibiting his works at the annual Royal Academy shows in 1825. He was influenced by the work of his contemporary, Richard Parkes Bonington.
Davis painted portraits, landscapes, and church interiors, and developed a distinctive specialty in painting the interiors of art galleries. His picture The Interior of the British Institution Gallery (1829) records a collection of Old Masters. His watercolor of the collection of Benjamin Godfrey Windus (1835) shows the Turner pictures on the walls. (John Ruskin studied those Turners while writing his Modern Painters.) Davis painted the interiors of the Louvre as well. Between 1842 and 1845 he was commissioned to draw copies of the paintings in the collections of the British royal palaces.
Davis painted scenes on the Continent during his travels there. He was in Florence in 1834, and Amsterdam in 1841. He painted the interior of the Uffizi Gallery.
Davis's later years were marred by alcoholism and spells of imprisonment. His posthumous reputation suffered as a result.
Davis's name is almost identical to that of John Scarlett-Davies, a modern video artist and director.
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