Departing Storm

David Lucas|John Constable

1829 · Mezzotint; proof before published state · Drawings and Prints

View of a country landscape over which departing clouds reveal a rainbow. In 1827, Constable began work on the project that would occupy his attention until his death seven years later: the publication of a series of prints based on his paintings that would stand as a summary of his achievements. The painter collaborated closely with the engraver David Lucas to create prints that would illustrate Constable's didactic intention—to illustrate the "chiaroscuro of nature." The medium of mezzotint, in which the design is developed from dark to light using a wide range of velvety tones, was eminently suited to the project. 2b is not a proof recognized in the Shirley catalogue raisonné. Rather, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's copy of Shirley contains handwritten notations regarding a second proof.

Artist

David Lucas|John Constable

Date

1829

Medium

Mezzotint; proof before published state

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1940