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For John Constable

Print
1976 (printed and published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The portfolio For John Constable was published by the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in 1976 in an edition of 100, to coincide with the Tate’s major Constable exhibition that year. Bernard Jacobson commissioned 19 artists to contribute a print to the portfolio. Several of the selected artists chose to respond directly to individual works (or series of works) by Constable in the V&A collection. Richard Smith’s (born 1931) collaged two-part lithograph appears to be a formalised response to Constable’s Landscape with Trees and Cottages under a Lowering Sky (V&A 324-1888), with the same long narrow format, and with the triangles of the gable ends uses as a formal geometry to anchor the composition and impose an element of symmetry. Smith has often extended his painted and printed work into three dimensions, an effect achieved here by layering one part of the print over the other, and attaching it only at the top edge using paper clips.


Object details

Category
Object type
Titles
  • For John Constable (assigned by artist)
  • For John Constable (series title)
Materials and techniques
Lithograph in two sections, one fixed over the other with paper-clips.
Brief description
Richard Smith: For John Constable, 1976. Lithograph.
Physical description
Print on paper
Dimensions
  • Height: 46.4cm
  • Width: 67.3cm
Copy number
76/100
Marks and inscriptions
76/100 R.Smith 76 (Edition number; signature; date. All in pencil.)
Summary
The portfolio For John Constable was published by the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in 1976 in an edition of 100, to coincide with the Tate’s major Constable exhibition that year. Bernard Jacobson commissioned 19 artists to contribute a print to the portfolio. Several of the selected artists chose to respond directly to individual works (or series of works) by Constable in the V&A collection. Richard Smith’s (born 1931) collaged two-part lithograph appears to be a formalised response to Constable’s Landscape with Trees and Cottages under a Lowering Sky (V&A 324-1888), with the same long narrow format, and with the triangles of the gable ends uses as a formal geometry to anchor the composition and impose an element of symmetry. Smith has often extended his painted and printed work into three dimensions, an effect achieved here by layering one part of the print over the other, and attaching it only at the top edge using paper clips.
Collection
Accession number
E.77-2015

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Record createdJanuary 22, 2015
Record URL
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