A Mill, from English Landscape
1830
Medium
Mezzotint on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 14.2 × 21.3 cm (5 5/8 × 8 7/16 in.); Sheet: 17.5 × 24.2 cm (6 15/16 × 9 9/16 in.); Secondary support: 30 × 38.8 cm (11 13/16 × 15 5/16 in.)
Classification
mezzotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
27125
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
A talented mezzotint engraver, David Lucas devoted his career to reproducing the landscape paintings of John Constable. In the mezzotint process, the entire plate is roughened to create a dark field and then burnished to bring out highlights. Done in monochrome, Lucas’s prints masterfully emphasize the motion and play of light in Constable’s visions of the English landscape.
About the Artist
David Lucas · 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...