Noon1830
Sheep graze on a sloping hillside, watched by a shepherd, while a large dark tree anchors the right side and the land falls away to open fields under a broad sky. More about this work
About this work
Sheep graze on a sloping hillside, watched by a shepherd, while a large dark tree anchors the right side and the land falls away to open fields under a broad sky. The print belongs to English Landscape Scenery, the series in which David Lucas translated John Constable’s paintings and sketches into mezzotint in the early 1830s. Several titles in the series name a season or a time of day, and Lucas’s rich tonal range, from deep black to scraped white, conveys the full light of midday on open country.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
The image shows a landscape with a rolling hill in the foreground sloping downward. The horizon is high, providing a view over fields and sky. Sheep graze on the hill, tended by a person. A large, dark tree is on the right. Brushstrokes vary in the sky and land, with broad strokes for clouds and finer ones for grass and foliage. The color palette is mainly black, white, and shades of grey, highlighting light and shadow.
Description from the National Gallery of Art.
How it was made
- Mezzotint
- The whole copper plate is roughened with a toothed rocker so it would print solid black. The artist then scrapes and burnishes it smooth where the lights should be, working from dark to light, which gives soft, velvety tones.
- Laid paper
- Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.
David Lucas
British, 1802–1881 · Born in Geddington Chase, Northamptonshire; died in London.
Lucas was a mezzotint engraver best known for his long collaboration with John Constable. Between 1830 and 1832 they issued English Landscape Scenery, a series of mezzotints after Constable’s paintings and sketches, with Constable closely correcting the proofs to capture effects of weather and light. Lucas also engraved several larger single plates after Constable. Despite the quality of the work, it brought neither man commercial success.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The National Gallery of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 2001.118.23
- Credit
- Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Type
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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