An Account of a New Process in Painting de CLEAVER, Elizabeth - 1821

F C and J Rivington, 1821. Hard Cover. Very Good. [CLEAVER, Elizabeth.]. An Account of a New Process in Painting. In Two Parts. Part I. Containing remarks on its general correspondence with the peculiarities of the Venetian School. Part II. Supplementary details, explanatory of the process: with miscellaneous observations on the arts of the sixteenth century. xi, [1], 174pp. An uncut copy in original drab boards, neatly rebacked, paper spine label, some wear to corners and board edges. Fresh contemporary front-end-paper. Very scarce. Contemporary ownership name at the head of the title-page, and another name erased from the inner front board. 8vo. For F.C. & J. Rivington. 1821. "Without further deliberation, and with a sort of childish eagerness, I immediately melted a quantity of bee's wax and poured it over the face of the picture - with what success may be easily imagined. After spoiling by similar expedients all the rough calf bindings that fell in my way, I had to look out for some new material to paint upon...." There was a great "attraction of Venetian secrets for lady amateurs... the authoress was the daughter of William Cleaver, Bishop of bangor and later of St Asaph, and she claimed to have discovered her process, by accident, in 1807. [Her] work, which was reissued in an expanded London edition in 1821, would hardly deserve attention, had she not made repeated applications for support to the British Institution and had been taken up by Sir George Beaumont, who approached Constable to make trials of the process in 1824. Constable's deep sympathy for Titian, and probably his friendship with George Field, which developed at this time, naturally made him suspicious of all formulae and, though he had heard that Miss Cleaver "had been boring at [it] these twenty years", he concluded that he did not much like it. She hoped the Institution would send several artists to test the process at her home in Brighton, "and offer very high premium for their success," but it is not known whether anything further was done." [ref: John Gage. Magilphs and Mysteries. Readings in Conservation.].