A complete set of mezzotint proofs, with title pages and introductions, by David Lucas after paintings by John Constable, published by Constable in 1833.

Constable worked in collaboration with a professional mezzotint artist, David Lucas, who transcribed Constable’s sketches into mezzotint tones. In Lucas, Constable found the perfect printing partner. Constable would make wash sketches of the subjects and Lucas would translate these into mezzotint, allowing Constable to rework the plates at every stage. Constable painstakingly reworked each plate, often retouching the final impressions. The use of mezzotint allowed Constable to express what he called the ‘chiaroscuro of nature’ with the emphasis on the changing light and dark tones within the landscape.

Dominic Colnaghi & Co sold the final bound copies of the set. In the introduction, Constable writes ‘The immediate aim of the author in this publication is to increase the interest for, and promote the study of, the Rural Scenery of England…England, with her climate of more than vernal freshness, and in whose summer skies, “with thousand liveries dight”, and rich autumnal clouds, the observer of Nature may daily watch her endless varieties of effect’.

The bound volume includes a trial proof as well as Constable’s original sketch for the vignette of Hampstead Heath.