AN oil painting originally thought to have been a fake John Constable work has been valued at £2 million.

The work, bought for £35,000 in the Nineties, shows an alternative view of the well-known Hay Wain and had been dismissed as the work of an imitator.

But BBC1’s Fake or Fortune had the painting verified as a genuine Constable.

Experts say the painting is worth about £2 million.

In comparison, the Hay Wain masterpiece fetched £22.4 million at auction in London in 2012.

Art historians say the world-renowned artist painted Willy Lott’s Cottage, at Flatford, from many angles before his best-known masterpiece was completed.

The BBC show, hosted by Fiona Bruce, revealed her co-host Philip Mould had the painting when he was a fledgling art dealer but failed to authenticate it given Constable paintings are the most-forged of the 19th century.

That was despite the painting being traced to Constable’s son.

Now, 17 years on, the pair re-examined the piece with its current owner, Gloucestershire businessman Henry Reid, and had it verified using state-of-the-art technology and two Constable experts.

Acknowledging he missed out on the £2 million price tag, presenter Mr Mould said: “Despite my best efforts, I failed to prove it, so I was obliged to sell it on.

“I had a conviction, a dream, that it was possibly right, but art dealers can’t afford to put money into a picture and hope and wait.

“I’m really happy to know that I was not deluded.

“I’m thrilled for Henry, its owner.”

Mr Reid, who bought the painting from Mould in 2000, pledged to make it publicly available.

He said: “It was a bet worth taking. I’m thrilled - I always loved the painting. But I had the uncertainty as well.”

The find has been welcomed art experts in north Essex

Manningtree-based restorer Rosalind Whitehouse, who was selected to work Constable’s Mill Stream, said: “In art history terms it is quite important because it shows the way the artist collates material together and develops the project.

“For me, it shows Constable wanted a piece with depth and he wasn’t getting that from this alternative view but he did with what we know as the Hay Wain, which shows the stream meander into the countryside.

“For me, he is thinking it is not quite right for the scale for the picture in his head.”

A spokesman for the Colchester and Ipswich Museums service, which oversees the largest Constable collection outside of London, added: “This is one of those things which happen every so often and it is another opportunity to get an understanding of how an artist went about constructing their work.

“Constable was famous for painting on the go pretty quickly, usually from sketches from different angles in the same way we might do now using a digital camera to form a piece.

“We can see from these what has interested him and that his focus is on certain elements.”

The painting is believed to have been composed around 1820, just before the Hay Wain, in 1821.