Constable's viewpoint rediscovered

The exact spot where landscape artist John Constable painted The Stour Valley And Dedham Village has been identified for the first time in almost 200 years.

Since it was painted in 1814/15, gradual changes to field boundaries meant that the exact location of the viewpoint that inspired Constable was difficult to identify – making it one of only a handful of Constable's landscapes still to be found.

But new research by the National Trust, which owns and looks after much of the countryside surrounding the village of Dedham on the Essex/Suffolk border, has helped pinpoint the exact location where Constable once stood to paint this particular scene.

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Martin Atkinson, National Trust property manager for East Suffolk and a Constable enthusiast, used features from the painting and historic maps of the area from the Suffolk Records Office to identify the exact location.

He said:"When I discovered that I had worked out the location where Constable painted this particular masterpiece, I couldn't believe it.

"All the pieces of the jigsaw finally fitted together."