{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1530787"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1530787/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2022NH5101/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2022NH5101/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2022NH5101","copyright":"©The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved 2021/ Bridgeman Images","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MT9954","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1530787","accessionNumber":"E.385-2020","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"After Constable's Elm","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"This is one of a group of 143 state, trial and cancellation proofs of etchings by Lucian Freud (1922-2011) which came from the collection of Marc Balakjian (1938-2017) of Studio Prints. Balakjian was Freud’s printer from 1985 and worked closely with him on the production of his etchings.\r\n\r\nThis print was inspired by a painting by John Constable, Study of the Trunk of an Elm Tree,  c.1821, in the collection of the V&A, which Freud saw when he was a student aged  about 17. He tried and failed to copy it at the time, and also failed in his efforts  to paint a treek trunk from nature. In 2002 Freud was invited to select works  for a Constable exhibition (Constable: Le Choix de Lucian Freud) at the Grand  Palais, Paris. A conversation about Constable between Freud and the critic  William Feaver was published in French in the exhibition catalogue; at the  suggestion of the British Council this was replublished in English as a separate  book, 'Lucian Freud on John Constable - A Conversation with William Feaver'  (2003). He agreed to make this etching to help pay for the publication of the  book.\r\n\r\nHe did not work from the original, as he had done when making paintings and  etching after Chardin's The Young Schoolmistress. He used a large postcard of  the picture as his source instead. The etching is almost exactly the same size as  the painting, but Freud made several changes to the composition. He cropped it  on all sides and magnified the central area. He also moved the blackbird, which  would have been lost in the cropping, closer to the tree trunk. The trial proofs  show that Balakjian experimented with different inks - green-black and black.   Freud approved the green-black proofs and asked Balakjian to keep the trunk  dark and lighten the branches. In the published edition (see E.1063-2003)  achieved this effect by inking the body of the trunk with black ink, adding dark  tone to its sides, and using a green-black for the rest of the tree and the  surrounding landscape.\r\n\r\n","physicalDescription":"View of a tree trunk in a landscape.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Freud, Lucian","id":"A11665"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Balakjian, Marc","id":"A19984"},"association":{"text":"printer","id":"AAT25732"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"printing ink","id":"AAT187371"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Etching","id":"AAT53241"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Etching on paper","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2022NH5101","2020MT9954"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"SHLN","id":"THES49063"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":"AAT41273"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2003","earliest":"2003-01-01","latest":"2003-12-31"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Accepted in lieu of inheritance tax by HM Government in 2019 from the collection of Marc Balakjian and allocated to the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"31.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"plate","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"23.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"plate","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"16F Trial proof, contrasty print on white paper in green black ink.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"in pencil; by Marc Balakjian"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Lucian Freud: Trial proof of After Constable's Elm, 2003. Etching. Printed by Marc Balakjian.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.385-2020"],"accessionNumberNum":"385","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2020,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-07","recordCreationDate":"2020-02-17","availableToBook":false}}