Art Institute of Chicago

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Valentine Green (English, 1739-1813)

Date

1780

Medium

Mezzotint on paper

Culture

England

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Valentine Green was primarily self-taught in the art of mezzotint and mastered it early on in his career. The medium allowed the artist to achieve new textural effects, especially when copying from paintings. His large-scale Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was originally painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. To obtain a rich painterly texture, Green used a uniquely fine-toothed “rocker,” a tool that roughened the surface of the entire plate, producing a particularly dark overall ink tone when it was printed. The tones were then burnished and scraped to produce the white heightening of the image. The resulting composition exudes the refinement and soft elegance that only Green could produce. He printed close to 400 mezzotints during his career; all appeared in limited editions, which was made necessary by the delicacy of his plates.

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