{title- Transcription of Green's Exhibition Catalogue, 1812}
{series- Lakes Guides}
{author- Norgate, Martin & MN: 31.3.2014}
{version- last edit: 31.3.2014}
{abstract- Transcription of the catalogue of the Eleventh Exhibition of 
drawings and prints by William Green, Ambleside, Westmorland, 1812.}

{header- Transcription of Green's Exhibition Catalogue, 1812}

{text- Transcription of the catalogue of the Eleventh Exhibition of 
drawings and prints by William Green, Ambleside, Westmorland, 1812.}

{text- source type: LakesSrc & Green 1812}

{text- title page:-}

{image = GN13T.jpg}


EXHIBITION AND SALE ROOMS, IN AMBLESIDE, OF AN EXTENSIVE VARIETY OF 
COLOURED AND PENCIL DRAWINGS AND PRINTS, OF THE LAKES, MOUNTAINS, RIVER 
SCENES, AND BUILDINGS, IN <i>Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire</i>, 
WHICH HAVE BEEN DRAWN FROM NATURE. ENGRAVED AND PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM GREEN.
THE ELEVENTH EXHIBITION. ADMITTANCE ONE SHILLING.



ULVERSTON: PRINTED BY J. SOULBY, KING-STREET, 1812.


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EXHIBITION AND SALE ROOMS, OF <i>Drawings and Prints</i> IN AMBLESIDE.


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{text- Transcription is letter for letter, retaining the case of the 
original, but not text sizes; italics are preserved; the spellings and 
grammar have not been altered. }

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{text- An attempt has been made to index this work; keywords have been 
allocated to each page of the transcript.}
{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.v}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{text- preface, page v:-}

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INTRODUCTION.



THERE are in the present EXHIBITION a great variety of new and interesting 
scenes, which have been wholly coloured from nature and finished upon the 
spot, and to a strength of tone and effect, heretofore rarely attempted; 
many of them are upon a large scale, and from their novelty and the 
extraordinary care with which they have been executed, will it is trusted, 
not fail of affording amusement to the lovers of art in general.



The drawings finished within doors are all from sketches of corresponding

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.vi}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{text- preface, page vi:-}

{image = GN13pr06.jpg}

{continues last paragraph}
sizes, made wholly on the spot; they are chiefly new, and will be found to 
possess a superior degree of interest to those composing any of the 
artist's former EXHIBITIONS, by their effulgent display of light and the 
solemnity of gloom and vapour, accompanied by a tone of locality in the 
foreground, colouring only to be accomplished by those who have long and 
studiously coloured from nature.

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.7}
{series- Lakes Guides}

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{marginal = sets of prints}
PRINTS.



SIXTY STUDIES FROM NATURE, etched in the soft ground, after original 
drawings, in black-lead pencil, of the most interesting scenery in 
<i>Cumberland, Westmorland</i> and <i>Lancashire</i>.



These outlines are printed upon imperial drawing paper, thirty inches by 
twenty-one inches, and consist of every species of material that can tend 
to gratify the amateur, aid the artist, and improve the taste of those who 
wish to make a progress in the study of landscape nature.



The price unbound, including description, is <i>ten guineas</i>.

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.8}
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A SELECTION OF THIRTY PRINTS may be made from the above sixty, including 
the description, for <i>six guineas</i>.



Single prints <i>five shillings</i> each.



SEVENTY EIGHT STUDIES FROM NATURE, accompanied with letter-press, 
describing principally the various subjects comprised in the work; with 
some remarks on useful and ornamental planting.



The volume is <i>five guineas</i>, but for general accommodation, it is 
divided into five parts, viz.



... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... L. s. d.
Part I, containing 12 plates 0 10 6
...... II, ...............19 ......... 1 1 0
...... III, ............. 16 ......... 1 1 0

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.9}
{series- Lakes Guides}

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Part IV, containing 11 Plates 1 1 0
...... V, ................ 21 ......... 2 2 0
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... L.5 15 6



This work of seventy-eight plates, commences with the most simple objects, 
such as stones, plants, cottages, and little mountain scenes; as it 
advances, it increases in intricacy and interest, and is so varied in 
subject, as to be the means of qualifying the student by one winter's 
moderate, but attentive labour, to draw with pleasure from nature, the 
following summer.



TWENTY SIX AQUATINT VIEWS OF THE LAKES. - Price <i>one pound six 
shillings</i>.



VARIOUS COLOURED AQUATINTS, from <i>one</i> to <i>fifteen shillings</i> 
each.

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.10}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p10.jpg}


Some of the large outlines have been washed up with indian ink. The prices 
<i>L.</i>1 11<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each: - these washed outlines have been 
much admired.



VARIETY OF ORIGINAL SKETCHES, in black-lead pencil.

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.11}
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{marginal = to the reader; manifesto}
THE FOLLOWING



ADDRESS



BY THE ARTIST,



<i>Explaining his motives for publication, is respectfully recommended to 
the consideration of the lovers of the arts in general.</i>



WITH a wish to acquire a knowledge of nature in all its beauty, grandeur, 
and characteristic variety, I left London in the year 1800, and settled 
myself in Ambleside: - I had on several prior occasions visited the Lakes, 
and considered Ambleside as affording the easiest facilities to the most 
interesting features of the country.

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.12}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p12.jpg}


The year I arrived here I made a number of pencil drawings, and surveyed 
with much attention this store-house of my future labours; - I had never 
seen Wast Water, and made an excursion to that romantic region, with a 
friend, in the November of that year; but though the mountain tops were hid
in clouds, the scene exhibited a vastness and grandeur, highly gratifying 
to the feeling mind; we waited some time in expectation of seeing more, but
our wish was not gratified, and we returned for that night to Eskdale, not 
without a mixed feeling of pleasure and disappointment: since that time I 
have often visited Wastdale, and seen it under many desirable circumstances
of effect.



In 1801, with excessive labour and anxiety of mind, I travelled this 
extensive cluster of mountains in almost every possible variety of 
direction, and collected in pencil many hundred outlines from which a 
selection was made and finished drawings were produced from that selection,
for the purpose of forming my first exhibition, which was opened in the 
middle of the summer, 1802.

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.13}
{series- Lakes Guides}

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Not satisfied with what I had yet done, I retraced my former steps and 
added considerably to my stock of sketches, not only in the year 1802, but 
in several succeding years, thereby improving my taste in execution, and my
feelings in respect to combination and quantity: - some of my early 
sketches were considerably in detail, but others were slight, but though 
slight they were accurate and tolerably characteristic, considering the 
quantity of lines bestowed upon them: as I began to improve they were seen 
by various lovers of art, and purchased, and by the estimation in which 
they were held I was induced to redouble my attention: I had from the first
of my coming into the country made many of them of the size of my five 
guinea finihsed (sic) drawings, but it was not till the year 1805, that I 
began to work upon the super royal paper, twenty-seven inches by nineteen: 
I then patiently investigated the materials before me and made my drawings 
in pencil with a corresponding anxiety, finishing as I have always done 
entirely on the spot.

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.14}
{series- Lakes Guides}

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{continues last paragraph}
Accuracy I have always considered as a necessary ingredient to be possessed
by an artist, and I consider character equally necessary, and the time 
seems fast approaching when every lover of the arts will think the same. - 
There is no method by which a man can learn to discriminate between what is
beautified and what is not beautified in nature, but by attentively 
studying nature; but this is not done by making fifty sketches in a day, 
for though such practise should be continued for years, such a sketcher 
would retreat from his employment as ignorant as he approached it, but the 
slight sketches of those who have been previously initiated into all the 
intricacies of nature are truly fascinating, and such only of the slight 
kind, can with propriety, be deemed masterly.



From my cradle I have always loved the arts, but had never the opportunity 
of studying them seriously, till I came to live in Westmorland; when I was 
a drawing master in Manchester, I was constantly on the look out for 
etchings to assist me in my teaching, but every thing I saw of the land-

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.15}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p15.jpg}

{continues last paragraph}
[land]scape kind was so debased by manner, as to promise injury rather than
good; and I made from that place several journies into Wales and the north 
of England, from which I certainly derived advantage; from Manchester I 
removed to London, and practiced as an aquatint engraver during the several
years I resided there, mixing my in-door labours with the study of the 
trees in the parks, and other places in the metropolis; I likewise drew 
cattle at the farms in Mary le-bone, and in consequence became acquainted 
with others whose pursuits were similar to my own - I admired much their 
etchings of cattle and human figures, and have often surveyed, with 
particular admiration, the pencil drawings and etchings of animals, by the 
celebrated <i>Mr. Hills</i> - but it still appeared that preparatory 
lessons were wanting in landscape, through the medium of which the young 
student might be introduced to the knowledge of nature; for it is scarcely 
in any other art of such vast importance to be well begun, as in that of 
painting; I revolved the subject in my own mind, and

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.16}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p16.jpg}

{continues last paragraph}
at last determined to seclude myself among the mountains, hoping that by a 
due attention to the object of my choice, I might not only serve the arts, 
but eventually benefit my family.



My first proposals for publication were issued in 1807 and this was for the
large work, five numbers of which appeared the following year, two numbers 
in 1809, and it was finally completed by the delivery of the three last 
numbers in 1810.



On sight of the first five numbers in 1808, my friends suggested that a 
series of introductory etchings, upon a small scale, would be more useful 
to beginners than the large ones, and the set of seventy-eight outlines was
accordingly published in 1809.



It was my idea originally to begin with the small outlines, but in the 
opinion of others, it was thought that the large ones, by their magnitude 
and consequence, would be more likely to command public attention than the 
small ones.



The subjects composing these publications are of almost every variety, 
furnished

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.17}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p17.jpg}

{continues last paragraph}
by the country, such as scenes of Lakes, Mountains, and Rivers; Churches, 
Farm houses, Cottages, Bridges, and Trees: they have been etched by myself,
in the soft ground outline, with every possible attention to the original 
drawings, and the original drawings have spoken the truth as far as the 
powers of my mind and my pencil would allow them, and I hope nothing but 
the truth for I have studiously avoided, as far as the nature of lines 
would allow, all impertinent matter in their relief.



That the prints possess the truth and characteristic accuracy of the 
original outlines, is owing to their being produced by the same person, but
this is scarcely possible where the draughtsman and engraved are two 
persons.



If the etcher of his own works, or the copier on paper of his own studies 
reversed in a glass, performs the task with ease, it is a good sign, but if
with difficulty those sketches were made under an improper influence, this 
is a trial worthy the attention of all who wish to discover in what degree 
they may be considered as mannerist - nature is here un-

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.18}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p18.jpg}

{continues last paragraph}
[un]like the works of her copyist, for it will be found as easy to copy 
nature as reversed in a mirror, as to draw from nature herself.



When the large work was first proposed for publication, it was intended to 
be engraved in three several sorts of line; the soft ground, the aquatinta,
and the hard ground etched line - I had formerly used all these modes; in 
the present case, on account of its monotonous effect, I intended to use 
the aquatinta line, in such scenes of mountains as had but little 
foreground, and the hard ground etched line in a few of the plates by way 
of variety, but on mature deliberation I fixed upon the soft ground, as 
infinitely better calculated to answer my purpose, than either of the other
two; the hard ground etched line is wholly incapable of giving the fire and
spirit of the black lead line; and the aquatint is equally devoid of 
expression; the instrument used and the nature of the resistance, puts it 
wholly out of the power of the artist to give the manner of the original 
subject; there is likewise much uncertainty in the production of the 

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.19}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p19.jpg}

{continues last paragraph}
various tones; if in one plate fifty degrees of strength are required, they
must be produced by fifty applications of the acid. The soft ground has all
the freedom of the black lead pencil, many of the plates have been finished
by using the aquafortis once only; but the accomplishment of this desirable
end requires extraordinary care and attention in the management, not only 
of the execution but of all the materials employed.



I should not here have troubled the reader with an account of my reasons 
for working in the soft ground in preference to any other line, had I not 
conceived it a duty I owe to the public and to myself, to remove 
impressions which, if not noticed, might tend to retard the progeess of 
this department of art generally; and be injurious to me individually by 
its being supposed that the best line was to me unknown.



When I was in London in the year 1810, on calling on the worthy secretary 
of the society of Arts, I was informed that an important discovery had been
made by <i>Mr. Hassell</i>, the aquatintist of a line which probably

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.20}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p20.jpg}

{continues last paragraph}
might be of great advantage to me; I read the specification, and to my 
surprise, found it to be the precise line I had made use of nearly twenty 
years ago. My theoretic knowledge of the aquatint was obtained from the 
ingenious <i>Mr. Craig</i>, in Manchester, I even saw him produce the 
aquatinta line, but thus was the dry ground line, and I believe the 
invention of the late <i>Paul Sandby</i>, Esquire; and though there is a 
considerable difference in the processes producing the dry and the liquid 
ground lines, yet having first known the dry line, I claim no merit in its 
production by the liquid ground, though the line produced from the liquid 
ground is more beautiful and much more durable than that from the dry 
ground.



I had always considered the aquatinta line as an excellent and expeditious 
mode of repairing failures in the soft ground line, and in the Shakespear 
tree at Rydal, given in the large work <i>No.</i>19, it answered that 
purpose well, saving much time by its dispensing on those places with the 
use of the graver; the parts repaired by the aquatinta are those about the 
bottom of the tree, and some

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.21}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p21.jpg}

{continues last paragraph}
of the stones in the water; but here the scale of aquatinta is too small 
whereby to judge of the comparative excellence of the two lines; I had 
never heard of this old new line before spoken of, 'till I arrived in 
London, in 1810, and the Rydal plate was finished in Ambleside, in the 
Spring of the same year, before I went to London.



What I have here said is not done with an intention in the slightest degree
to injure <i>Mr. Hassell</i>; but to shew, that knowing both lines, I five 
years ago proposed in my intended work occasionally to use them both but 
preferred the soft ground line. It is probable that <i>Mr. Hassell</i> hit 
upon the line himself, and it gives me great pleasure to find that he has 
been rewarded for his invention; I do not find that manner of line in the 
slightest degree hinted at by <i>Mr. Green</i>, of Wells Street; from which
it is fair to infer, that at the time of his publication, in 1804, he had 
not heard of it; nor is it noticed by the author of the aquatinta process 
in <i>Dr. Rees's</i> new Cyclopaedia; and it should seem that though this 
process was known to some, it was not known generally.

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.22}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p22.jpg}

{continues last paragraph}
That my etchings have not been encouraged, would be doing great injustice 
to my friends, many of whom, not only possess copies of both works, but 
have warmly recommended them to others; but that I have been in an adequate
degree repaid for the labour of ten years and for the enormous expence, I 
have incurred in consequence of publication, ought scarcely at present to 
be expected.



That it will be an income to my family after I am gone I cannot doubt, but 
I am not without hope that I shall reap the fruits of my labours during my 
life time; the success of the present and the last year is not 
discouraging, and I respectfully recommend these prints to the examination 
of all lovers of the arts, that they by seeing, may judge between my 
performances and those of others published with similar intentions: in thus
urging comparison, it is not with a view to gratify my vanity or injure the
works of others, in the public estimation; it is solely with a wish to 
receive that honest reward to which I trust my labours are entitled to.

{title- Eleventh Exhibition, p.223}
{series- Lakes Guides}

{image = GN13p23.jpg}


I cannot close this my tedious address, without expressing my sense of 
obligation to those my numerous friends who have sanctioned me in my 
undertakings, since I came to live in Westmorland; from many of them I have
received the most liberal encouragement: these kindnesses are next to heart
(sic), and will always be held in grateful recollection, by their



Obliged and obedient Servant,



<i>William Green.</i>



AMBLESIDE:



<i>July</i> 30<i>th</i>, 1812.



{marginal = colophon}
J.Soulby, Printer, Ulverston.