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Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

A work made of mezzotint on paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of mezzotint on paper.

Date:

1780

Artist:

Valentine Green (English, 1739-1813)
after Sir Joshua Reynolds (English, 1723-1792)

About this artwork

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.

Status

On View, Gallery 217

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Valentine Green

Title

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Place

England (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 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.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Stephen Y. Hord

Reference Number

1945.79

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/52928/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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