
Why does a beautiful sketch please us more than a beautiful painting…?
… It’s because there is more life and less form. The more form one introduces, the more life disappears Denis Diderot, about 1767 Paris Salon. In summer 2016, during the “Defining British Art Evening Sale” auction at Christie’s, John Constable’s full-size sketch “View on the Stour near Dedham” was sold for 18,860,000 US Dollars. Two weeks ago, on December the 6th 2017, during the “Old Masters Evening Sale” at Sotheby’s, a much smaller Constable’s sketch, “Dedham Vale with the