A Mill
Medium
Mezzotint; second state of five
Dimensions
Image: 5 9/16 × 8 1/2 in. (14.1 × 21.6 cm) Plate: 7 1/2 × 10 in. (19.1 × 25.4 cm) Sheet: 11 1/2 × 17 3/16 in. (29.2 × 43.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1925
Accession Number
25.51.6
Tags
Art Historical Context
This evocative mezzotint, titled *A Mill*, captures the quiet poetry of rural England through the collaborative efforts of landscape painter John Constable and engraver David Lucas. Created in 1830, it belongs to Constable’s ambitious series of prints intended to bring his celebrated oil paintings to a wider audience. As a leading figure of the Romantic movement, Constable drew inspiration from the waterways and mills of his native Suffolk, celebrating the harmony between nature and human industry during a time of rapid industrialization. The choice of mezzotint was particularly significant f...
About the Artist
David Lucas|John Constable · 1802–1881
**David Lucas (1802–1881)** David Lucas was born in 1802 in Geddington Chase, Northamptonshire, the son of a farmer.) A chance encounter in 1820 led him to become a pupil of the renowned engraver Samuel William Reynolds, under whom he apprenticed in London until 1827, mastering the art of mezzotint engraving.) By 1827, Lucas had published his first mezzotints, showcasing his precocious talent for...