Hadleigh Castle (Small Plate)
in or after 1831
Medium
mezzotint [progress proof]
Dimensions
sheet: 32.8 × 44.8 cm (12 15/16 × 17 5/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Paul Mellon Collection
Accession Number
1975.46.24
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the National Gallery of's Paul Mellon Collection will delight in *Hadleigh Castle (Small)*, a mezzotint progress proof created by David Lucas after John Constable in or after 1831. This evocative print captures the dramatic ruins of Hadleigh Castle England's Essex coast, echoing Constable's monumental 1829 oil painting of the same subject. Constable, a master of Romantic landscape painting, portrayed the crumbling medieval fortress against a turbulent sky and vast sea, symbolizing nature's sublime power and the fleetingness of human endeavors—a theme central to early 19th-century B...