John Constable works have a habit of turning up in unexpected places, from a Guernsey townhouse to television and beyond. Now, a newly identified Constable study for The Cornfield is set to go to auction after spending decades in rural Texas.
Heritage Auctions will present the work in its European Art sale in June. The painting is a large-scale study for Constable’s 1826 masterpiece The Cornfield.
It was formerly part of the collection of the Tyler Museum of Art in Texas, where it had long been listed as a later copy or derivative work. Scientific analysis has now shown that its materials and methods are consistent with Constable’s practice, reinforcing the attribution and offering new insight into the development of the finished composition.
Believed to be the largest known study for The Cornfield, the rediscovered painting first emerged nearly a decade ago in Jefferson, Texas, before being acquired by the museum. Its reidentification marks an important addition to Constable scholarship and underscores the value of technical examination in bringing lost works to light.
