John Park’s etching, “The Romantic House", c1878, after John Constable

John Park (1851–1919)

"The Romantic House", c1878, after John Constable’s (1776–1837) painting, “The Grove, Hampstead” (collection of the TATE Gallery [N01246]), printed in Paris by François Liénard (fl. c. 1860s–1880s) and published in the French periodical, “L’Art” in 1878.

Etching on cream laid paper with partial Arches watermark.

Size: (sheet) 39.3 x 27 cm; (plate) 25.8 x 21.3 cm; (image borderline) 24.8 x 20.8 cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “John Constable R.A. pinx./ L’Art.”; (centre) “THE ROMANTIC HOUSE”; (right) “J. Park, sc./ F^çois Liénard, Imp. Paris.”

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“House at Hampstead; figures and cattle around a watering hole in the foreground with small bridge at right, the house with tower, known as 'the Grove', seen through trees behind; after a painting by John Constable in the V&A (Reynolds 21.108); published in 'L'Art', 1878

Etching” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1879-0510-130).

Regarding the portrayed subject, the gallery label at the TATE offers the following insights: “The house known as ‘The Grove’ was occupied in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by Fountain North, a former lieutenant in the navy. North made alterations to the building so that its flat roof resembled the quarter-deck of a man-of-war; from here he is said to have fired a cannon on special occasions. By the time Constable came to stay regularly at Hampstead in the 1820s, the main relics of this eccentric arrangement seem to have been the railings round the edges of the roof" (TATE Gallery label, May 2007 [https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constable-the-grove-hampstead-n01246]).

Condition: a richly inked and well-printed impression in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds or significant stains.

I am selling this creatively inventive transcription of Constable’s painting into a network of lines—note the swirling lines giving drama to the form of the clouds and how tiny flecks of white suggest the sparkle of light (a visual device of adding strokes of white employed by Constable to suggest the glittering effect of light on water droplets that has been described as his “snow”)—for a total cost of AU$212 (currently US$151.94/EUR134.47/GBP114.69 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this very beautiful and vibrant etching, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold