Constable sketch discovered in a suitcase heads for auction (again)

A sketch by the artist John Constable found throughout a home clearance has been consigned to public sale with an estimate of £2,000 to £3,000—simply two years after it was purchased by a collector in north Yorkshire. The work will go below the hammer at David Duggleby auctioneers in Scarborough on 15 September. In 2021, it was offered by the public sale home for £2,000.

Beneath provenance for the work, the public sale home states on-line: “Deceased property/home clearance within the Leeds/York space, positioned in a suitcase with damaged glass, again opened and glass changed previous to public sale.” Beforehand the sketch was accessible with the Little Gallery in London which specialised within the Nineteen Seventies in “large identify artists however the footage have been usually sketches”, the entry continues.

The pencil sketch, a view throughout Dover harbour in direction of the fort above the city, is one among a collection of sketches the artist made in April 1803 throughout a voyage on the East India Firm ship Coutts from London to Deal in Kent.

Constable is believed to have made quite a few journeys on the ship. In a letter to his good friend John Dunthorne dated 23 Might 1803, Constable wrote: “I got here on shore at Deal, walked to Dover (about one and a half hours) and the following day returned to London.”

Dominic Cox, of the auctioneers David Duggleby, instructed the Yorkshire Publish: “The sketch is an in depth view throughout the water of Dover harbour in direction of the quayside buildings, with the fort excessive above the city and the cliffs stretching away into the gap. The placement is recognized on the backside proper and the yr is frivolously marked within the sky high proper.”

In keeping with the public sale home, the again of the drawing is inscribed “J Constable” in all probability within the handwriting of John Fisher, his good friend and patron, who dispersed lots of Constable’s sketches and scrapbooks after his loss of life.

In 2014, a sketch considered a preparatory work for Constable’s The Hay Wain (1821) offered for £42,000 at Cheffins auctioneers in Cambridge.