The Landscape Mezzotints of Turner and Constable

In the first decades of the nineteenth century, the two great English landscape painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, each published a series of mezzotint engravings after their landscape compositions. Not only did these publications involve considerable financial outlay, but they also consumed much of the artists’ time and energy, becoming major artistic endeavours. Both artists were acutely aware of the print medium’s potential for making their work available to a wider audience, and this was one of their reasons for adopting it. Equally important, however, was the desire to use the medium as a vehicle for the expression and communication of their views on art. Both artists were committed to elevating the position of landscape painting, which was then still considered an inferior category in the hierarchy of subjects.

The Gallery is fortunate to own sets of these prints that were assembled either directly by, or upon the advice of, the distinguished print dealer, Harold Wright. Wright worked in London in the first half of the century with the art firms of Obach & Co, and then Messrs. Colnaghi, becoming a director of the later in 1939. He was greatly respected for his extensive knowledge of prints, and his scholarship on etching and contemporary etchers in particular.

All works in the exhibition are drawn from the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Sourced from: The Landscape Mezzotints of Turner and Constable, National Gallery of Victoria, 1992