Is it a fake or is it worth a fortune?
UK art historian and paintings restorer Sarah Cove has been instrumental in the discovery of three ‘lost’ significant works by John Constable and later this month she will give ArtsNational Noosa members a fascinating look at the early 18th-19th landscape painter.
A leading authority on Constable’s materials and techniques, she has appeared on BBC TV programmes notably Constable in Love with Andrew Graham-Dixon and twice on Fake or Fortune?
She has examined over 250 works from collections worldwide, from tiny oil sketches on fragments of canvas, paper supports and boards to the ‘six-footers’, some of Constable’s most famous and iconic paintings including The Haywain (1821), The Leaping Horse (1825) and Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831).
In 2014 she set up a Facebook page to raise awareness of her research and she is now regularly contacted by people that think they have a found a previously unknown Constable!!
Her lecture will describe some extraordinary successes but also unhappy disappointments. Her stories will include, at opposite extremes, a hugely publicised oil sketch reputedly worth £250,000 that turned out to be a copy and the chance discovery of a fabulous, almost abstract, oil study of the 1830s that had formerly belonged to an American G.I.
Fakes and Fortunes Or Have I Found a ‘Constable’ in my Attic? ArtsNational Noosa, Saturday 25 October, St Mary’s Church, 17 William Street, Tewantin – 3.45 for 4pm start. Booking membershipnoosaadfas@gmail.com. Visitor fees: $30 incl. wine/canapes
