A previously unknown sketch by one of the UK’s most renowned painters John Constable is expected to fetch £150,000 to £200,000 at auction.
The artwork, believed to have been created between 1809 and 1814, is of the countryside that surrounded the artist’s childhood home in East Bergholt on the Sussex and Essex border.
Constable, who died aged 60 in 1837, was best known for his oil painting ‘The Hay Wain’ which won a gold medal at art exhibition the Paris Salon in 1824.
The 12 by 15 inches sketch, called ‘Dedham Vale looking towards Langham’, has never been recorded but it has emerged from a private family collection in North Yorkshire.
It will now be going under the hammer where it’s expected to fetch £150,000 to £200,000.
Jane Tennant, director at Tennants Auctioneers, said: “Constable is such an icon of British art history, and we are delighted to be handling the sale of this lively and expressive landscape.
“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 sketch will go to auction as part of the British, European and sporting art sale at Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn, North Yorks., on March 15.
It will be on view at the auction house ahead of it going under the hammer and for further information visit www.tennants.co.uk.
