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Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
JOHN CONSTABLE (after) The Rainbow, Salisbury Cathedral.
Mezzotint, 1834-37. 615x715 mm; 24 1/4x28 1/4 inches, wide margins. Engraved by David Lucas. A superb, richly-inked impression of this large, important print.
This tour-de-force mezzotint is based on Constable's important oil Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, 1831, painted one year after the death of his wife, Maria, and now in the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.
Constable later added lines to the canvas from The Seasons by the 18th century poet James Thomson that reveal the painting's meaning: that the rainbow is a symbol of hope after a storm that follows on the death of the young Amelia in the arms of her lover Celadon, a parallel to the death of his beloved wife. The artist exhibited the painting at the Royal Academy, London, in 1831, but continued working on it during 1833 and 1834, when Lucas made this mezzotint to commemorate its completion. Shirley 39 (Lucas).
