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Lucas, David; Constable, John (after)
Old Sarum Vieux Sarum
1830 1830

John Constable’s growing reputation as England’s foremost landscape painter soon spread to the continent when, in 1824, his celebrated Hay Wain created a sensation at Paris’s Salon exhibition, and his work was embraced by the emerging generation of Romantics. In 1829, the year he was elected Royal Academician, he formulated plans for a series of mezzotints by the engraver David Lucas after his paintings, published in five parts of four prints each as English Landscape Scenery between May 1830 and July 1832. His goal was surely financial, but no less to extend the audience for his work. The results – like this print – are among the greatest examples of partnership between painter and printmaker: the mezzotint, with its great capacity for soft, velvety textures and subtle contrasts, was ideally suited as a medium to interpret Constable’s gentle celebrations of England’s Suffolk countryside. And Lucas was a sensitive collaborator, revising the plates repeatedly to Constable’s instructions.

Lucas, David; Constable, John (after)
Geddington Chase, England 1802-Fulham, England 1881; East Bergholt, England 1776-Hampstead, England 1837 Geddington Chase, England 1802-Fulham, England 1881; East Bergholt, England 1776-Hampstead, England 1837
Old Sarum Vieux Sarum
1830 1830
engraving and mezzotint on paper Gravure et mezzotinte
height / width: 33.40 x 41.70 cm; 13.15 x 16.42 in.
Purchase, George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund, 1979 Achat, Fonds commémoratif George Taylor Richardson, 1979
22-018

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