Salisbury Cathedral is based on a small oil sketch made during Constable’s visit to Salisbury in 1829. Lucas started to work on the engraving in 1831; this print is an early proof. Constable’s standards were highly exacting and each print went through numerous revisions before he was satisfied. An early catalogue of Constable’s prints describes this as one of ‘Two or Three very rich Proofs before the slanting lines that indicate the driving shower, and with the west front of the Cathedral wholly in shadow and the spire undefined’