Experts in art have found a fifth version John Constable’s The Glebe Farm.
The painting was initially believed to be a ‘copy’ and was sold at an auction in Cincinnati, Ohio, last year for £40,000.
Art experts now believe it was painted by Constable and it will be sold at Sotheby’s Old Masters auction on December 8 with an estimated value of £3million to £5million.
Experts in art have discovered an additional version of John Constable’s The Glebe Farm (pictured).
The painting is based on an oil sketch of the home of Constable’s old friend and supporter Dr John Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury.
Fisher’s death in 1825 prompted Constable to return to the sketch and produce multiple oil paintings of the scene.
The painting disappeared around 1867, but resurfaced in Cincinnati in 1922 and was bought by the industrialist Edward William Edwards.
One version (pictured) of The Glebe Farm is housed at the Detroit Institute of Arts and the other three versions are at the Tate Gallery, London. Pictured: Detroit version
It was inherited from his grandson Thomas Edwards Davidson in 1994, and then was sold last year by his descendents.
“The family forgot or didn’t realize what it had.
‘It’s amazing, really, that in this day and age these things happen and there are still these great masterpieces out there, undiscovered and unknown,’ Julian Gascoigne, Sotheby’s director of early British paintings, told the Sunday Times.
The painting was initially believed to be a ‘copy’ and was sold at an auction in Cincinnati, Ohio, last year for £40,000. Pictured: Tate version
Art experts now believe it was painted by Constable and it will be sold at Sotheby’s Old Masters auction on December 8 with an estimated value of £3million to £5million. Pictured: Tate version
The painting is based on an oil sketch of the home of Constable’s old friend and supporter Dr John Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury. Pictured: Tate version
Constable is best known for his landscape painting and is considered one of Britain’s greatest artists. Pictured: Oil painting of John Constable by Ramsay Richard Reinagle that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London
The Detroit Institute of Arts houses one version of The Glebe Farm, while the Tate has three other versions.
According to some sources, this new version was painted in 1828. This is considered a “working study” showing Constable as he prepares to move from Detroit’s smaller version to London’s Tate Gallery.
Surprisingly, Constable painted Fisher’s cottage in the fifth, newer version.
John Constable (1776-1837), an English painter who was part of the Romantic tradition is best known for his landscapes. They are mostly taken from Suffolk, the area where he was born.
Around 1810, Glebe Farm was his first painting.
He also painted landscapes such as Wivenhoe Park (1816), Dedham Vale (1821) or The Hay Wain (1921).
Although he was not financially wealthy during his life, he is now considered one of the greatest.
One of his paintings, The Lock (1824), fetched £22.8million at auction in 2012.
This is because an ancient poetry book that contained lost artwork by John Constable, an English landscape painter, was discovered.
An 1836 illustrated edition of poet Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ is expected to sell for £150,000 after it was found to contain lost artwork from the famous English landscape painter John Constable. Pictured is one of the watercolours depicting two soldiers contemplating the grave of an English knight.
A bookcase contained the illustrated 1836 edition of Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written In a Country Churchyard’. An auctioneer was performing a routine appraisal at a cottage.
When he opened the package, he was shocked to discover three watercolours from Constable attached to the pages. He also found a letter written by Constable and an ink sketch.
These are scenes that Hay Wain’s artist illustrated for the reprinting of the 1750 popular poem on mortality and remembrance.
One watercolour shows two soldiers contemplating the burial of an English knight while looking at each other.
Romantic Britain: John Constable’s life and times
John Constable
John Constable was born in Suffolk, England in 1776. He is considered to be one of Britain’s most prominent artists.
His landscape paintings of Dedham Vale are his most well-known works. This is the region where he was born.
The National Gallery now displays his most well-known painting, The Hay Wain.
One of six canvases that depicted the Flatford Mill area in Suffolk, The Hay Wain is one.
Another in the series, The Lock, became one of the most expensive British paintings ever sold when it fetched £22.4million at auction in 2012
Constable did not achieve financial success despite the fact that his works were now earning huge amounts of money.
He struggled with peer recognition and was not elected to the Royal Academy until he turned 52.
His wife, 60 years old, died from apparent heart failure in March 1837.
The tomb also contains the remains of his children John and Charles.