Turner & Constable review – excellent survey of two great rivals in English painting

2026-03-10 - 11:13

Documentary accompanying Tate Britain’s exhibition of the two competing painters comes with approachable expertise and beautiful photography The actual exhibition is still on at the Tate Britain until mid-April, and of course no one would be so heretical as to suggest not seeing these amazing artworks in the flesh. But if you don’t live in London and/or don’t fancy shuffling round with the thronged masses, then this excellent film treatment is a rewarding experience – if only for the glowing closeups, interesting and erudite commentary from the exhibition curators and complete lack of elbows in ribs or backs of other people’s heads. The film-makers behind the Exhibition on Screen strand, of which this forms part, are past masters at creating elegant and watchable counterparts to the gallery-going experience, and this titan of a show which matches the two early 19th-century masters of British art is no exception. The show pitches itself as outlining the (mostly) friendly contest between the two painters who were born 14 months apart (Turner, slightly older, in 1775, and Constable in 1776), and both show and film rather brilliantly walk us through their common ground and where they diverge. Continue reading...