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Hadleigh Castle: Large Plate

David Lucas British
After John Constable British
1830–49
Not on view
In 1829, Lucas became involved in a project with John Constable to execute a select group of Constable’s landscape paintings in mezzotint, a tonal engraving medium in which the plate is roughened with a tool called a rocker so that its burr retains the printing ink to varying degrees. Constable saw the early proofs and requested that Lucas bring him more examples: "Bring me another large ‘Castle,’ or two, or three, for it is mighty fine, though it looks as if all the chimney sweepers in Christendom had been at work on it and thrown their soot bags up in the air." This large plate was first published in 1849, following Constable’s death, and is based on a painting that Constable associated with "melancholy grandeur," a mood which is echoed here before the addition of figures and animals in later trials.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Hadleigh Castle: Large Plate
  • Artist: David Lucas (British, Geddington Chase, Northamptonshire 1802–1881 London)
  • Artist: After John Constable (British, East Bergholt 1776–1837 Hampstead)
  • Date: 1830–49
  • Medium: Mezzotint; trial proof
  • Dimensions: Plate: 10 7/8 × 14 11/16 in. (27.6 × 37.3 cm)
    Sheet: 11 1/16 × 15 1/8 in. (28.1 × 38.4 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1927
  • Object Number: 27.4.61
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Old Sarum, David Lucas British, Mezzotint; first state of two
Old Sarum
David Lucas
John Constable
1830
A Lock on the Stour, David Lucas British, Mezzotint on chine collé; proof before published state
A Lock on the Stour
David Lucas
John Constable
1830
Summer Afternoon – After a Shower
David Lucas
John Constable
1831
Hadleigh Castle
David Lucas
John Constable
1832
East Bergholt, Suffolk
David Lucas
John Constable
1832

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