Spring: East Bergholt Common  about 1821 or 1829
oil on oak wood panel
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, gift of Isabel Constable in 1888

Spring, 1829, David Lucas after Constable, mezzotint, drypoint, touched in ink, Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, gift of John Charrington in 1910

In this mezzotint, Constable and Lucas aimed to capture the dry quality of the paint in Constable’s oil sketch of this subject – Spring: East Bergholt Common, about 1821 or 1829. Constable wanted the print to ‘give some idea of one of those bright and animated days of the early year, when all nature bears so exhilarating an aspect’.

Lucas made many changes to the plate. He created at least eight progress-proof variations before producing the published edition.