Newly discovered John Constable oil study for 'The Cornfield', unearthed in small-town Texas, on view in London
Widely regarded as one of Constable’s two greatest paintings alongside The Hay Wain in the National Gallery, London, The Cornfield was the first of his works acquired for the national collection.
LONDON.—
Heritage Auctions will present a previously unknown oil study for one of John Constable’s most celebrated paintings, The Cornfield (1826), during a private media preview for UK press on 26 March at its Mayfair galleries.
The monumental study — painted circa 1820-1826 — will lead Heritage’s European Art auction on June 5. It will be on public view in London from March 27 through April 2 before traveling to the United States for sale.
Widely regarded as one of Constable’s two greatest paintings alongside The Hay Wain in the National Gallery, London, The Cornfield was the first of his works acquired for the national collection. The newly discovered six-foot oil study relates directly to that masterpiece painted exactly 200 years ago and represents a major addition to the Constable canon.
A Discovery from Texas
The painting surfaced at the Jefferson Historical Society & Museum in Jefferson, Texas, where it had hung for decades and was long believed to be one of at least 85 known copies of the composition. Since 2017, however, suspicions had grown that the darkened and heavily varnished canvas might be something far more significant.
After years of consultation, the museum commissioned a comprehensive scholarly and conservation investigation to determine whether it held an authentic Constable — a discovery that could help fund a critical reinstallation of its collection.
At the recommendation of Heritage’s Co-Director of European Art, Marianne Berardi, the museum engaged Anne Lyles — distinguished art historian, former Tate curator and a leading authority on Constable — along with Sarah Cove, accredited Paintings Conservator and Founder of the Constable Research Project.
Following shipment to London, the work underwent an extensive program of cleaning tests, pigment analysis, and infrared reflectography to reveal the shape of the underdrawing. The results demonstrated complete consistency with Constable’s materials and working methods. A sensitive restoration followed.
Further expert opinion confirmed the conclusion: The painting is a previously unknown autograph study by John Constable.
Rewriting the Story of The Cornfield
The discovery raises compelling new questions about Constable’s studio practice and the afterlife of his works.
Technical examination of the full-scale study disclosed a fascinating revelation: Constable worked on the canvas at two different times, a fact deduced from a shift in his style of paint application and the fact that the paint from the first pass had fully set before he continued working on the composition. This strongly suggests that the artist’s idea for The Cornfield emerged not just months but years earlier than 1826. Lyles and Cove speculate on the basis of Constable’s correspondence that he may have begun the painting on commission as early as 1823, then set it aside, only to return to it later and transform it into a large working study for a picture of profound importance to him — one he executed under enormous time constraints.
The Subject
The composition depicts a shepherd boy lying full-length beside a pool along a country lane, drinking from his hand while his sheepdog stands watch over the flock beneath towering trees. The scene is based on Fen Lane, along which Constable walked as a boy between East Bergholt and Dedham.
Constable exhibited The Cornfield at the Royal Academy in 1826, where it received critical praise but failed to sell. Following his death in 1837, a group of admirers purchased the painting and presented it to the National Gallery, making it the first of his works to enter a national collection.
That a major preparatory study for this composition would emerge not from a British country house but from a local museum in rural Texas makes the story all the more remarkable.
“It’s been an extraordinary journey from a museum wall in Texas to the international limelight,” says Berardi. “The technical analysis, from pigment testing to infrared examination of what lies beneath the surface, confirmed what we had begun to suspect. This is a work by John Constable himself. Its discovery significantly deepens our understanding of how he developed one of his greatest masterpieces.”
