Explorations in the footsteps of Turner, Cotman, Ruskin and others with Professor David Hill
I admitted in my original article on David Lucas’s progress proofs for Constable's 'A Summerland' that my attempt to record all of the impressions for this composition was doomed to amendment. I hardly suspected that it would require amending quite so frequently. Here is yet another proof; the third to appear this year. I haven’t … Continue reading Update: Another Constable ‘Summerland’ proof!
This article extends the consideration of two proofs of the print by David Lucas and John Constable of the artist's composition of 'A Summerland' sold at Chiswick auctions on 27 June 2019, together with a further proof from the series of 'English Landscape Scenery' of 'Willy Lott's Cottage'. To start with the first new ‘Summerland’ proof. … Continue reading Further Constable ‘Summerland’ proofs #2
On 27 June 2019, lot 372 Chiswick Auctions, London offered a progress proof of David Lucas’s mezzotint of Constable’s ‘A Summerland’. The catalogue identified this as proof state 10e as given in Andrew Shirley's superb book Mezzotints by David Lucas after John Constable, published in 1930.. This turns out to be wrong. It is, rather, … Continue reading Update: Further Constable ‘Summerland’ proofs
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 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 is the second of an occasional series of articles that I will post as I work through Cotman’s Normandy subjects at Leeds Art Gallery. In September 2016 I had the opportunity to spend the month travelling through Normandy and visited the sites of all of the subjects represented at Leeds. Dieppe was his port … Continue reading In Cotman’s Footsteps through Normandy: #2 Dieppe Castle and Harbour
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