Overview
- The exhibition, Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals, is open at Tate Britain and runs until 12 April 2026.
- Works by the two artists are presented side-by-side to probe rivalry as well as kinship, including a reconstruction of their 1831 Royal Academy stand-off.
- The display blends famous canvases with rarely seen material from private collections, such as tiny Turner watercolours and Constable oil sketches.
- The show traces divergent practices and ambitions, from Turner’s travel-driven sublime and scenes of modernity to Constable’s cloud studies and large ‘six-footers’.
- Coverage places the artists in wider cultural debates, referencing abolitionist readings, climate urgency, and their influence on later practitioners.