William Green
William Green (1760-1823) was a popular landscape painter who had been encouraged to begin painting by the writer Thomas West. After visiting the Lakes on several occasions, he finally settled in Ambleside in 1800.
Green produced a huge number of drawings and prints during his lifetime. Charles Roeder, Green’s nineteenth century biographer, put a conservative estimate on the number of his finished works at 1000.
In 1819 he produced The Tourist’s New Guide to the English Lake District, writing the text as well as producing all the drawings and paintings. In 1795 he published Forty-eight views of the Lake District and Four Views of Wales, followed by a Series of picturesque views of the North of England in 1796.
In his 1819 Guidebook, Green stated his wish "to save from the wreck of time and the busy hand of man the best specimens of this mountain architecture, by a series of representations, on a scale adequate to their beauty and importance”.
Green also ran his own Exhibition and Sale rooms in Ambleside and Keswick, and with the profits from his business was able to take a room in between the Queen’s Head and the Oak pubs in Keswick, for a rent of £9 per annum.
Green charged visitors a shilling to view his paintings and, the travelling governess Miss Weeton wrote in 1810 to her brother of what she considered excessive prices for his prints, detailing how he charged 20 guineas for a large pair of prints.
That he was able to support his family from the proceeds of his endeavors is a good indication of the extent to which tourism had taken off.
In addition to his individual works, he had published series of Studies from nature every year or two from 1804 onwards, and he continued this work until his death in 1823.
William Green, Ambleside from Stony Lane, Ambleside: William Green, 1 February 1822, etching, The Wordsworth Trust.
William Green, Bowder Stone.