Britain’s Tate Modern exhibition, Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals is brought to the big screen in this installation of Exhibition on Screen. Two British masters of landscape are brought together in one celebration, on the 250th year of their births.
Close contemporaries, born within a year of one another (Turner in 1775, and Constable in 1776), both artists attended the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts (RA) at the same time. Often compared to one another due to genre, their styles (and backgrounds) could not be more different.
J.M.W. Turner, born in the heart of London in Covent Garden from humble beginnings, was noticed by the art community from early on. He entered RA at the very early age of 14, gaining attention and acclaim quickly, leading him to becoming a full RA at 27 – the youngest of any artist to achieve this title. As an artist, Turner not only captured the landscapes he observed on his travels, but sought to insert important commentary at a time in history when change – political, scientific and historical – was paramount.
John Constable, on the other hand, was born to an affluent businessman in rural Suffolk. Only attending RA from the age of 23, Constable’s career in painting started later in life, although equally determined to succeed. Constable’s paintings stayed firmly entrenched in the subjects he knew best: Constable country. Preferring to employ an ‘en plein air’ approach to painting, his goal was not to idealise or “improve” imaginatively on the landscape as he observed it, but to record the landscape as it were, carefully capturing the light, or as he described it, “the quality of sparkle in nature”.
What makes Exhibition on Screen so great, in my humble opinion, is that not only do we see exhibitions that may not be accessible without a plane ticket, but even if we did make it there, it makes a great companion piece to the exhibit itself. With commentary from experts and snippets and stories from curators and historians, we are treated to more than just the art. Turner and Constable’s (mostly) friendly rivalry is brought to life through stories about their time in the Royal Academy.
As quoted by London Magazine in June 1829: “Mr Constable’s works present no stronger contrast…than they do with Mr Turner’s…The first is all truth, the last all poetry: the one is silver, the other gold.” What resonated with me the most was, as different as these two great artists were, both were revolutionary in the world of landscape art. And in that, no one can refute that they both stand equal.
Exhibition on Screen: Turner and Constable is showing at Luna Leederville on 21st and 22nd March.