
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
<p>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 <em>Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire</em> 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.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1780
- Medium
- Mezzotint on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 60 × 38.5 cm (23 5/8 × 15 3/16 in.); Sheet: 63.3 × 38.5 cm (24 15/16 × 15 3/16 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Valentine Green
Artist

Valentine Green (English, 1739-1813)
Full artist profile →More
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1784 · Mezzotint on paper
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1783 · Mezzotint in black on cream laid paper
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1782 · Cotton, plain weave; copperplate printed
Henry Laurens
1782 · Mezzotint on paper
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1781 · Mezzotint on paper
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Valentine Green
- Year
- 1780
- Medium
- Mezzotint on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 60 × 38.5 cm (23 5/8 × 15 3/16 in.); Sheet: 63.3 × 38.5 cm (24 15/16 × 15 3/16 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1780-022775
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





