A previously unknown work by John Constable that was uncovered 200 years after it was painted has sold for more than £400,000.
The master landscape artist’s work, entitled ‘Dedham Vale looking towards Langham’, is a colourful depiction of the Suffolk countryside.
Dedham Vale, often dubbed ‘Constable Country’, is synonymous with the English artist.
The 12in by 15in oil sketch work is believed to have been painted between 1809-1814 as Constable moved away from the classical painting styles he was taught.
The work is thought to be the basis of his 1825 oil painting, ‘Dedham Vale’, which is now housed in a museum in Munich.
Its sale fee is meagre by comparison to the one achieved by Constable’s 1824 work The Lock, which sold for £22.4million at Christie’s auction house in 2012.
But the artist was not rich in his lifetime.
A previously unknown work by John Constable that was uncovered 200 after it was painted has sold for over £400,000
The master landscape artist’s work, entitled ‘Dedham Vale looking towards Langham’, is a colourful depiction of the Suffolk countryside
He refused to sell any of his preliminary sketches stating that he had ‘no objection to parting with the corn, but not with the field that grew it.’
The work had belonged to a 19th century art collector.
It was passed down by descent to the vendor. While he was aware it was a Constable original, it was was never recorded.
The sketch was sold by Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, for hammer price of £320,000.
With fees added on the total price paid for it was £404,480.
Jane Tennant, director at Tennants, said: ‘Constable is such an icon of British art history, and I was so privileged to take to the rostrum to auction this incredibly important piece.
‘Oil sketches, much like drawings, have an immediacy – a direct link to the mind and working practices of an artist.
‘Executed when he was just starting out on his extraordinary career, he has managed to imbue the sketchily painted landscape with such vitality with his deft handling of dramatic light and shade.’
The back of the frame that houses the work. The sketch was sold by Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, for hammer price of £320,000. With fees added on the total price paid for it was £404,480
Born in 1776 in Suffolk, Constable revolutionised the genre of landscape painting, mainly with depictions of the Dedham Vale, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Its sale fee is meagre by comparison to the one achieved by Constable’s 1824 work The Lock, which sold for £22.4million at Christie’s auction house in 2012
The Lock became one of the most expensive British paintings ever sold when it was bought in 2012, but the transaction triggered controversy.
Sir Norman Rosenthal, a trustee at Madrid’s Bornemisza Museum, where the painting had been housed, resigned in protest.
He slammed owner Baroness Carmenn Thyssen-Bornemisza for what he called a ‘moral shame’. She insisted she had to sell because she had ‘no liquidity’.
Born in 1776 in Suffolk, Constable revolutionised the genre of landscape painting, mainly with depictions of the Dedham Vale, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
His most famous painting, the 1821 Hay Wain, became a sensation after winning a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1824.
He died in 1837.
