An early sketch by the master landscape painter John Constable (1776-1837), not previously recorded in literature on the artist, sold for a hammer price of £320,000 in the British, European and Sporting Art Sale at Tennants Auctioneers on 15th March. Measuring just 12 by 15 inches, the sketch hailed from a private family collection in North Yorkshire (all figures exclude buyer’s premium).
Dedham Vale looking towards Langham, executed circa 1809-14, is an impressive and vigorous early plein-air sketch of the countryside surrounding Constable’s childhood home of East Bergholt on the Suffolk/Essex border. Having completed his studies at the Royal Academy Schools in 1802, the young Constable abandoned the classical academic landscape painting of previous generations, letting ‘Nature herself’ guide his work. Returning to his Suffolk home, he began created plein-air sketches out amongst the fields and byways, a practice he continued until around 1829, and developed a colourful and highly expressive oil sketching style.
The present sketch is close in style to other known works executed circa 1809-10 but is notable for the more dramatic way in which he handles light and shade, depicting rays of sunlight bursting through cloud and sharply illuminating stretches of the Vale. Constable would use his quick on-the-spot sketches, often years later, when he was in his London studio planning new paintings for exhibition. Indeed, this sketch is believed to be the basis of Dedham Vale (c.1825), now in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Neue Pinakothek in Munich. The full-sized landscape has been extended into a more expansive view of Dedham Vale with figures and animals inserted, but it retains the dramatic sun bursting through the cloud.
Speaking of the painting, Jane Tennant, Director and Auctioneer at Tennants said:
Constable is such an icon of British art history, and we are delighted to have handled such an important work of art and achieved such a fantastic price for the vendors. It is rare for an unrecorded Constable to come onto the open market, and it attracted a good deal of interest.
In a strong sale overall, further notable results were seen for “The Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice” by Antoinetta Brandeis (1849-1926) (sold for £5,200) and Still Life of Assorted Summer Flowers in a Glazed Vase Before a Window by Dorothea Sharp (1874-1955) (sold for £9,000). Selling well above estimate, too, were “Charles Edward at Carlisle” by Robert Alexander Hillingford (1828-1904), which sold for £5,000 against and estimate of £1,000-1,500, and “Vedute Della Prima e Maggiore Piramide di Giza, con la Seconda in Distanza” by Luigi Mayer (1755-1803), which sold for £2,800.
The sale realised a total hammer price of £427,010 for the 91 lots, and an 89% sold rate.
Prices quoted are hammer price, excluding buyer’s premium of 24% plus VAT.
