Various subjects of landscape, characteristic of English scenery / from pictures painted by John Constable, R.A. engraved by David Lucas

John Constable RA

RA Collection: Book

Record number

04/604

Author

John Constable RA

Variant Title

Constable's English landscape

Imprint

London: Published by Mr. Constable, 35, Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square. Sold by Colnaghi, Dominic Colnaghi, and Co. Pall Mall East, 1839 [i.e. 1830]

Physical Description

[4] leaves, [22] leaves of plates ; 31 x 49 cm.

General Note

The set of 22 prints, (mezzotints, with etching, roulette and drypoint), was originally issued in five parts between June 1830 and July 1832. By 1833 a second edition was ready (with some plates reworked), and a further series, entitled the Appendix, was planned before Constable’s death; some plates of the Appendix remained unpublished while others were published by F.G. Moon in 1845. The title page of this volume carries the publication date 1830, but this has been altered by hand to 1839. However, the introduction by John Constable is dated January 1833 and is therefore from the 2nd edition published in that year.

The list of engravings sates that the Vignette of Hampstead Heath is the last plate in the album. In the Royal Academy of Arts Library copy, it precedes the title page.

The plates state: Painted by John Constable R.A. Engraved by David Lucas. London: Published by M^r. Constable, 35 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square. They are dated 1830, 1831 or 1832.

Introduction / John Constable -- List of the engravings of Mr. Constable’s English: Frontispiece: House of the late Golding Constable Esq. and birth place of the artist -- Spring. East Bergholt Common -- Sunset. Peasants returning homeward -- Noon. West End fields, Hampstead -- Scene on the River Stour, Suffolk -- Summer morning. The home-field. Dedham -- Summer evening. Cattle reposing. East Bergholt -- Dell in Helmingham Park, Suffolk -- Hampstead Heath. Story noon -- Yarmouth pier, Norfolk. Morning -- Sea-beach, Brighton. Brisk wind -- River Stour, near Flatford Mill -- Head of a Lock, on the Stour -- Mound of the city of Old Sarum -- Summerland. Rainy Day. The Ploughman -- Stoke Church, near Neyland, Suffolk -- An Undershot-Mill, Dedham, Essex -- Weymouth Bay, Dorset. Tempestuous evening -- Summer afternoon. Sunshine after a shower -- The Glebe Farm and Green Land. Girl at the Spring -- The Nore, Hadleigh Castle, mouth of the Thames -- Vignette, Hampstead Heath
The titles, as recorded on the plates themselves, are as follows: Frontispiece to M^r. Constable’s English Landscape. East Bergholt, Suffolk -- Vignette to M^r.Constable’s English Landscape. Hampstead Heath, Middlesex -- Spring -- Autumnal sunset -- Noon -- River Stour Co. of Suffolk -- Summer morning -- Summer evening -- A Dell, Helmingham Park, Suffolk -- A Heath -- Yarmouth pier -- A seabeach -- Mill stream -- A Lock on the Stour Co: of Suffolk -- Old Sarum -- A Summerland -- Stoke by Neyland, Suffolk -- A mill -- Weymouth Bay, Dorset -- Summer afternoon - after a shower -- The Glebe Farm -- Hadleigh Castle near the Nore

References

L. Parris, John Constable and David Lucas [exhibition catalogue] (1993); J. Constable, John Constable's correspondence, ed. R.B. Beckett, vol. IV (1966), p.314-463; A Shirley, The published mezzotints of David Lucas after John Constable, RA (1930); F. Wedmore, Constable: Lucas: with a descriptive catalogue of the prints they did between them (1904); British Museum, Constable's "English landscape scenery" 1979. More general studies include J.C. Ivy, Constable and the critics 1802-1837 (1991); I. Fleming-Williams and I. Parris, The discovery of Constable (1984).

Provenance

The front free endpaper carries a 20th century Royal Academy bookplate on which is inscribed in pencil “Presented by the late artist’s family, 6 April 1839.”

Copy Note

Introduction by John Constable dated: January 1833

Binding Note

Half bound in green leather. Green cloth boards. Lettered in gold on upper cover and spine: "Constable’s English Landscape." Bound with one other [04/608].