A REDISCOVERED pencil drawing by one of the country’s finest ever landscape painters has sold for £87,500 - 14 times the expected amount.

A sketch which is believed to show the landscape near Framlingham Castle emerged from a private collection and experts confirmed it was by John Constable.

The world renowned Constable split his time between London and his home village of East Bergholt and painted stunning landscapes of the area around it which has now become popularly known as Constable Country.

The drawing has a watermark which was in use between 1805 and 1815.

It went under the hammer at Chiswick Auctions and was estimated to fetch £6,000 but instead netted £87,500.

Suzanne Zack, head of British and European Fine Art at the auction house said: “It was thrilling to have the pleasure of researching and offering for sale such fascinating works by one of the finest English artists of all time.

“The result of the landscape shows just how popular they still are.

“We were also delighted to be able to have sold one of Constable’s most personal portraits, of his wife, which offers a direct insight into the artist and his works, beyond his well-known landscapes”.

The portrait of Maria Elizabeth Bicknell sold for £10,625.

It came from a collection from the family of art historian Ronald Brymer Beckett who has extensively researched Constable from hundreds of letters and published several volumes of information on the artist.

Constable himself preferred to do portraits of friends and family rather than strangers on commission and would always attach huge significance and feeling into the character of the person who was sitting.

In March, Constable sketches found in a house clearance which had been bought for just £3 fetched a combined £115,000 at auction.

The drawings one of which was of a wooded glade were believed to be Constable’s early ideas for illustrating the scene of Jaques and the Wounded Stag from Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

The family of the collector were stunned to learn they were Constable works.