Tate Britain presents the first major exhibition to explore the intertwined lives and legacies of Britain's most revered landscape artists: JMW Turner (1775–1851) and John Constable (1776–1837). Radically different painters and personalities, each challenged artistic conventions of the time, developing ways of picturing the world which still resonate today.
Staged across the 250th anniversary years of their births, this exhibition traces the development of their careers in parallel, revealing the ways they were celebrated, criticised and pitted against each other, and how this pushed them to new and original artistic visions.
The exhibition features over 170 paintings and works on paper, from Turner's momentous 1835 The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, lent by Cleveland Museum of Art and not seen in Britain for over a century, to The White Horse 1819, one of Constable's greatest artistic achievements, last exhibited in London two decades ago. The exhibition ends with a new film featuring contemporary artists Frank Bowling, Bridget Riley, George Shaw and Emma Stibbon reflecting on the enduring legacy of Turner and Constable.
