Constable’s cathedral ‘sketch’ to sell for £2-3m
ASKETCH of Salisbury Cathedral that celebrated artist John Constable produced as a practice for a famous work has emerged for sale for £3 million.
The revered landscape painter was asked to create a view of the cathedral by the Bishop of Salisbury as a wedding present for his daughter.
Constable had just produced Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Grounds which is now in the V&A Museum, when John Fisher commissioned him to do another in 1823.
This time he wanted the painting to have a “more serene sky”.
Constable created an oil sketch largely from memory and inserted an arch of trees that didn’t actually exist to frame the cathedral and its huge spire.
He also gave the work a sunny sky as requested by the bishop.
The finished painting that was a wedding present to Elizabeth Fisher is now in a museum in the US.
But the 25ins x 30ins preparatory oil sketch was kept by the Constable family until 1895 when it was sold to an art collector.
It has been in private hands ever since but is now coming up for sale with auctioneers Christie’s in London.
Despite it being a preparatory work, the oil sketch is still estimated to sell for between £2m to £3m.
The record price paid for a Constable stands at £22.4m for The Lock in 2012.
A spokesperson for Christies said: “This is the last rendering of Constable’s iconic view of Salisbury Cathedral in private hands.
“It is a full-scale compositional oil sketch for a finished painting. It remained in the artist’s family until the late 19th century and was fondly referred to as The Vision.
“Depicting the majestic building of Salisbury Cathedral with its soaring spire, this wonderfully fluid oil sketch forms part of a body of work executed during the 1820s for Constable’s most significant and enduring patron; John Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury.”
Along with his native Suffolk, where Constable produced his most famous work, The Hay Wain, Salisbury was his other favourite location to paint. The sketch is being sold on December 7.