"Born within a year of each other, it is hard to think of two more emblematic British artists than J.M.W. Turner and John Constableor of two greater artistic rivals. Yet there has never been a major exhibition devoted to both. Spanning 2025 and 2026the years of their respective 250th anniversariesTate Britain's Turner and Constable will tell the story of their interlinked careers and how their proximity to each other helped define our ideas of them."
"Having finally become a full Royal Academician in 1829 (27 years after Turner), Constable was invited to hang the annual Summer Exhibition in 1831. He committed the faux pas of installing one of his own paintings in pride of place, next to a similarly large Turner. The move paid off: critics delighted in the comparison, dubbing the two artists fire and water, and cementing Constable's long-sought status as a titan of landscape painting."
Tate Britain will present Turner and Constable across 2025 and 2026, coinciding with each artist’s 250th anniversary and tracing their interlinked careers. The exhibition reconstructs the famous 1831 Summer Exhibition pairing of Turner's Caligula's Palace and Bridge alongside Constable's Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, highlighting contemporary critical responses that labelled them 'fire and water.' The show assembles rarely seen loans and private works to illustrate contrasts of temperament, origin, technique, and market savvy. Turner’s precocity and market success contrasted with Constable’s slower recognition and touchy rivalry. The presentation aims to clarify how proximity and comparison shaped modern perceptions of British landscape painting.
Read at www.theartnewspaper.com
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