The Glebe Farm 1830 - 1855

John Constable made this print, The Glebe Farm, using mezzotint, a painstaking printmaking process. It was especially popular in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, for its capacity to render subtle gradations of light and shadow. Mezzotint is an intaglio process, meaning that the image is incised into the plate, which is then inked and printed. The process begins by roughening the entire plate with a tool called a rocker. This creates a burr that, if printed at this stage, would produce a solid black field. The printmaker then works back into this field using various tools to burnish or scrape away the burr, creating areas that will hold less ink and therefore print in lighter tones. The labor involved is immense, and the final print conveys a rich, velvety texture. Consider the social context: mezzotint was often used to reproduce paintings, making art more accessible to a wider audience. Constable himself sought to control the distribution of his imagery through this medium, emphasizing the connection between artistic vision and skilled craft.