Explorations in the footsteps of Turner, Cotman, Ruskin and others with Professor David Hill
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
This article returns to a subject briefly visited in an article of 10 April 2016 in which I discussed a Turner watercolour of Ben Arthur from near Arrochar. I had not time then to investigate the subject in any detail, but finally last week managed to visit the exact spot. Regular readers will know that … Continue reading Turner and Scotland #2: Loch Lomond from Colonel Lascelles’ monument, 1801
This is the sixth and final instalment recording the recent exhibition of ‘John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm’, held at Leeds Art Gallery, 13 October 2017 to 21 January 2018. Here, we explore the framed works shown in the principal room under the theme of ‘Storm’. Under each caption is a link to a … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm, Part #6
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