The Edge of the Wood
At one time attributed John Constable (1776-1827), one of the greatest English landscape artists, this picture bears no signature and its history remains unclear. To compound the mysteries surrounding this work, during the 19th century completed works by such masters were copied frequently and skilfully. Nevertheless, this painting has a distinguished provenance going back to within two years of Constablesâ death. The most likely solution here is that the Victorian owner of the scene, Edward Fitzgerald, sold off his original by Constable (now untraced) and commissioned his friend Thomas Churchyard, an imitator of his, to paint a substitute.
