The 9½ x 14in (24 x 36cm) sketch, of ponies and donkey in a woodland clearing, is catalogued by Graham Reynolds as Landscape with horses in the 1996 catalogue raisonné of The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable with a date of 1810. Its former owners include Lionel Bicknell Constable (Constable's son), then Sir Robert and Lady Borwick and latterly the Woodman family by descent.
The date, October 8, 1810, was recorded on an old label (now believed lost) by Lionel Constable, making it one of three dated, plein-air landscapes made in Suffolk that year that are closely related.
The auctioneers suspect this sketch was painted in and around East Bergholt or the nearby village of Stoke by Nayland. The estimate is £40,000-60,000.
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