Newly discovered John Constable oil study for 'The Cornfield', unearthed in small-town Texas, on view in 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. The painting surfaced at the Jefferson Historical Society & Museum in Jefferson, Texas,