Explorations in the footsteps of Turner, Cotman, Ruskin and others with Professor David Hill
This is the second instalment in which I develop my interest Rembrandt’s wife. Here, I talk a little more about the etching that I bought. It appears that the auctioneers presumed this to be of relatively little interest, but it is in fact the same impression as one at the British Museum (1843,0607.12) and Christie's … Continue reading Rembrandt, Saskia and me #2
I recently enjoyed an assignation with Mrs Rembrandt in her home town. She was born in Leeuwarden, the principal town of Friesland in North Holland, and was the daughter of no less a figure than the Mayor. She married Rembrandt aged twenty-one in 1634 and they lived together prosperously in Amsterdam during the years of … Continue reading Rembrandt, Saskia and me #1
Recently a reader sent me a photograph of a proof impression of Constable’s ‘Summerland’. This turns out to be a distinct and hitherto unrecorded progress proof made sometime between an impression at the Metropolitan Museum, New York and one at the V&A, London. I discussed this part of the sequence in the article ‘John Constable, … Continue reading Update: New Constable ‘Summerland’ proof identified
This is the fourth in a series of seven articles that will catalogue an important group of drawings by John Ruskin at King’s College, Cambridge. For general notes on the collection see under article #1. I have to admit that progress with the catalogue has been somewhat slow: Part #3 appeared in 2014. 4. The … Continue reading Ruskin drawings at King’s College, Cambridge: #4 The Mer de Glace from the Montanvers Hotel above Chamonix
This article proposes a source for John Sell Cotman’s famous watercolour of ‘The Ploughed Field’ at Leeds Art Gallery. In the online catalogue of the Cotman collection at Leeds http://www.cotmania.org, I describe the watercolour as ‘the exemplar of his turn towards reticence and understatement… the supreme exercise in undemonstrative refinement and subtlety of its time’. … Continue reading Cotman, Bloomfield and The Ploughed Field
This is the fifth in a series of articles in which I discuss a recently-discovered progress proof of the mezzotint of ‘A Summerland’ made by David Lucas for John Constable in 1829. Here I begin consideration of the landscape, not far from Constable’s birthplace in the Suffolk village of East Bergholt, together with Constable’s two … Continue reading John Constable, David Lucas and ‘A Summerland’: Part #5 – The subject and its development
This is the fourth in a series of articles in which I discuss a recently-discovered progress proof of the mezzotint of ‘A Summerland’ made by David Lucas for John Constable in 1829. Here I finish the collation of the stages through which the engraving evolved to publication. The major aesthetic revisions all occurred in the … Continue reading John Constable, David Lucas and ‘A Summerland’: Part #4 – The Progress Proofs [e-h]
This is the third in a series of articles in which I discuss a recently-discovered progress proof of the mezzotint of ‘A Summerland’ made by David Lucas for John Constable in 1829. Here I continue a collation of the many stages through which the engraving evolved to publication. This involves concentrated tracking of changes to … Continue reading John Constable, David Lucas and ‘A Summerland’: Part #3 – The Progress Proofs [d]
This is the second of a series of articles in which I discuss a recently-discovered progress proof of the mezzotint of ‘A Summerland’ made by David Lucas for John Constable in 1829. Here I begin a collation of the many stages through which the engraving evolved to publication. This might well strike many general readers as … Continue reading John Constable, David Lucas and ‘A Summerland’: Part #2 – The Progress Proofs (a-c)
This is the first of a series of articles in which I introduce a recently-discovered progress proof of the mezzotint titled ‘A Summerland’ made by David Lucas for John Constable in 1829. Here I discuss finding and identifying the new work, and in subsequent parts will explore Constable’s development of the subject, the specific development … Continue reading John Constable, David Lucas and ‘A Summerland’: Part #1
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