Parky At the Pictures (9/3/2026)

(Review of Exhibition on Screen: Turner & Constable)

EXHIBITION ON SCREEN: TURNER & CONSTABLE.

As the marvellous Exhibition on Screen series moves towards its 40th title, it comes as a surprise to discover that only two previous entries have been dedicated to British artist. However, David Hockney At The Royal Academy of Arts (2017) and Lucian Freud: A Self Portrait (2020) are now joined by Turner & Constable, which explores the acclaimed Tate Britain show, `Rivals and Originals', which is due to run until mid-April.

Following some lovely landscape shots over some verses by James Thomson (voiced by Robert Lindsay), we descend upon Tate Britain, where Amy Concannon, Manton Senior Curator of Historic British Art, explains that it makes sense to bring the work of Joseph Mallord William Turner and John Constable together, as they were born within a year of each other. Moreover, as artist Lachlan Goudie and Nicola Moorby (Tate Britain's Curator of British Art 1790-1850) point out, they lived through a tumultuous period that saw the impacts of the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars radically change Britain. Yet such was their impact on the cultural life of the country that we still talk of Turner sunsets and Constable clouds and the places they painted have become popular tourist destinations.

At the start of the exhibition, visitors are met by Turner's c.1799 self-portrait and Ramsey Richard Reinagle's likeness of Constable from around the same time. Both men were in their early twenties and war had made the traditional continental tour impossible. So, they opted to explore the British landscape and the show opens with pictures that each artist gifted to the Royal Academy - Turner's `Dolbadarn Castle, North Wales' (1800) and Constable's `A Boat Passing a Lock' (1826) - which affirm their commitment to capturing places that meant something to them.

Over Turner's `Light and Colour (Goethe's Theory) - The Morning after the Deluge - Moses Writing the Book of Genesis' (1843), Goudie avers that the artist lit the touch paper for Impressionism, with his use of light, colour, and atmosphere, as he sought to capture the moment unfolding before him. However, he is careful to note that Constable was also breaking the mould in his efforts to convey his world.

The son of a wig maker and barber, Turner was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden on 23 April 1775 and grew up being acutely aware of the saleable value of goods from observing the theatres, shops, taverns, and brothels around him. Father William Turner used to put watercolours like

`View of Nuneham Courtenay From the Thames' (1787) in his shop window in the hope of making a sale. By contrast, Constable (born 11 June 1776) hailed from East Bergholt in Suffolk and was very much a country boy, although father Golding Constable was a wealthy corn merchant, who hoped that his son would follow him into the family business.

As Covent Garden was close to Somerset House on The Strand, the 14 year-old Turner had an early introduction to the newly formed Royal Academy of Arts, whose prestige is evident from Johann Zoffany's `The Academicians of the Royal Academy' (1771-72). As Moorby explains, having rhe letters `R.A.' after an artist's name was hugely important at a time in which British art was seeking to emerge from the shadow of the various European schools and present its own identity. Belonging to this elite club also gave works a tacit seal of approval and opened doors to wealth patrons and Turner was quick to seize on the opportunities his prodigious talent afforded him after becoming the youngest-ever member at the age of 27. As we see self-portraits from c.1790 and c.1799-1804, we learn that Constable didn't enter the Academy until he was 23, by which time he had made the acquaintance of Sir George Beaumont (seen in an 1803 portrait by Joseph Hoppner), whose collection included Claude Lorrain's `Hagar and the Angel' (1646), which had a profound influence on his approach to landscapism.

As Turner had also been influenced by the Frenchman (he was even dubbed `the British Claude'), Concannon has placed Turner's `Crossing the Brook' (1815) and Constable's `Dedham Vale' (1823) next to each other to show the mutual debt they owed to their Baroque predecessor. Beaumont, however, dismissed Turner's effort for being full of `pea-green insipidity'. Other early works are exhibited close together, including Turner's first Academy watercolour, `View of the Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth' (1790; accepted when he was 15), and his first oil, `The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock, Bristol' (1793). Concannon notes that Turner acquired the nickname `Prince of the Rocks' during his time in Bristol, as he was forever clambering over the Avon Gorge. This is a little-seen picture, as it had been in a private collection in Tasmania for decades before being sold at auction in 2024.

Over Turner and Thomas Girtin `Tivoli, Villa of Maecenas' (1794-97), Moorby explains that Turner was on a mission to put the landscape on a par with epic history painting. However, as his education had been patchy and he relied on his own reading, she suggests he didn't always get things right and that some of his early views of ports and harbours lacked the sophistication that might have been expected of an Academician. But `Fishermen At Sea' (1796) marked a radical departure, with its nocturnal scene of a boat in peril off the Needles boosting his reputation. Richard Johns, an art historian at the University of York, discusses how it was both a summation of a popular genre of 18th-century painting and a step in a new direction in the way it employs moonlight. But it was also a reminder of the vulnerability of the South Coast to invasion and the risks that these fishermen took each time they went out to sea.

Both Turner and Constable admired the poetry of James Thomson (seen in a 1735 portrait by Stephen Slaughter) and Concannon suggests how `The Seasons' (1726) influenced Turner's `A Transparency: A Moss-Covered Cottage and Shed, With a Man Smoking and a Lantern' (1794-95), `Morning Amongst the Coniston Fells, Cumberland' (c.1798), and `'Buttermere Lake, With Part of Cromackwater, Cumberland, a Shower' (1798), which were produced during a tour of the Lake District because the Grand Tour route was off limits because of conflict. While Constable didn't have the same wanderlust, he also ventured north to paint the likes of `Bow Fell, Cumberland' (1807), which demonstrated that he was also developing a mastery of light and mood.

Over `Sketch Map of the Meuse between Verdun and Mouzon' (1824) and `The West Front of the Cathedral at Reims' (1836), Goudie explains the importance of a sketchbook, as both an aide-mémoire for ideas and a repository for dimensions and colours that will be vital back in the studio. Goudie claims the sketches bely the outward impression that Turner gave of being a rough sort, as they reveal his sensitivity and openness to detail.

While Turner's approach could result in such exquisite pieces as `View Over a River' (1796-97), Constable preferred to work en plein air, although he could produce memorable sketches like `The Mill Stream' (c.1810) and `East Bergholt From East Bergholt House' (1811). Moorby reveals that he used sketches to fix a place in his mind so that he knew what he wanted to do with his oils outdoors and Goudie notes that he used to do outlines in advance so he could go straight into applying the paint.

We see Goudie making a pictures of his own, while explaining how Constable would have approached gems like `The Stour' (1810) and `The Valley of the Stour At Sunset' (1812) while working against the clock. In this manner, he created `Flailing Turnip-Heads, East Bergholt' (c.1812-15) and `Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River)' (1816-17), which is quite remarkable given their intricacy. Thomson waxes lyrical about the kind of views captured in `Stour Valley and Dedham Church' (1815) and `The Wheatfield' (1816) and it's hard not to be transported back to this bucolic time (even though rural life was far from easy).

The familiar suited Constable, but Turner wanted to spread his wings and visited the Louvre during the period of peace that followed the Treaty of Amiens (1802). He created `The Entombment of the Dead Christ, After Titian' from his time in Paris and `'The Source of the Arveyron Below the Glacier du Bois and Mer de Glace' (both 1802) from his brief sojourn in the Alps. Concannon explains how he ventured to Italy after the Congress of Vienna and Johns notes the differences between adjoining pictures in the exhibition - `Lake Avernus: Aeneas and the Cumaean Sibyl' (c.1814) and `The Bay of Baiae, with Apollo and the Sibyl' (1823) - which were painted before and after his excursion. He suggests that Turner was changed forever by his travels, as he started to use more yellow to convey the continental light.

In 1812, Turner exhibited `Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps', while Constable showed `Flatford Mill From the Lock'. The former merged landscape and the epic historical to comment on the hubris of man (while drawing parallels between Hannibal and Napoleon), while the latter showed the documentary potential of landscape painting. The approaches couldn't be more different, but the ambition of the enterprise is identical.

On his Italian journey, Turner switched between sketches like `The Forum, Rome, Looking South-East Towards the Arch of Titus` and such watercolours as `Vesuvius and the Sorrentine Peninsula From Via Posillipo', 'Venice: San Giorgio Maggiore - Early Morning', and `The Colosseum, From, From the West' (all 1819) and Goudie explains how Reeves & Sons introduced honey-based watercolour blocks that could be reused outdoors with a splash of water. Goudie suggests Turner applied his watercolours back in his room after a day's sketching to produce the likes of `Folkestone From the Sea' (c.1822-24), which uses the whiteness of the paper as a kind of lightbox to highlight the delicacy of the wash. He particularly loved yellows, as demonstrated by `The Sun Rising Over Water' (c.1825-30), but he also used cobalt blue on `Shields Lighthouse' (c.1823-26) and his experiments dated back to early works like `'Cader Idris: A Stream Among Rocks Near the Summit' (1798) and `The Thames Near Isleworth, With a Double Rainbow' (1805) - and Goudie claims he embraced mistakes as they offered a new way forward.

Following on from this, Moorby affirms that Turner was intellectually curious and had books on chemistry, mathematics, and print technology in his library. He built a house at Twickenham for his father to retire into, while he continued to embrace change in an age of reform of everything from the slave trade to prisons and the political system. He was also fascinated in the technology that was transforming the urban landscape and which was reflected in pieces like `London, York House Water-Gate' (1794-95). Seen in an 1828 portrait by Charles West Cope, he was also friends with such scientific pioneers as Michael Faraday and Mary Somerville.

Johns avers that Constable's cloud fixation came from a genuine interest in meteorology and understanding nature. Contrast his `Cloud Study, 10 September' (1821) with Turner's `'The Lake, Petworth, Sunset; Sample Study' (c.1827-28) or `Shade and Darkness - the Evening of the Deluge' (c.1843), which show an interest in weather extremes. Goudie sings the praises of `Staffa, Fingal's Cave' (1832), which shows a sailing vessel on a black sea beneath a spiralling white-grey cloud and, over `The Fifth Plague of Egypt' (1800), Moorby highlights the way in which Turner used mood as a narrative device. He could also be bold in his choice of subject matter, such as `Dido Building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire' (1815) and `The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire' (1817). Moorby alludes to the hostility the pair sometimes faced in the press from often anonymous critics, with Turner often getting a slating because of his use of chrome yellow.

Constable was attacked for the thickness of his brushstrokes in works like `The Leaping Horse' (1825) and for his use of white pigment to convey the movement of light, which drew mockery from critics who expected a conventional finish that disguised the artist's involvement. It was also claimed that he was parochial, with pictures like

`View on the Stour Near Dedham' (1822) and `The White Horse' (1819) simply reflecting the Suffolk of home. But Johns points out the details that show Constable was showing how this corner of the country was bound in to the rest, through its waterways or the goods that would be transported in the barges. He concludes that Turner and Constable's styles may have been different, but their concerns and intentions were very similar. As we see `Stratford Mill' (1820), Moorby concurs that such authentic views were steeped in the conventions of European art history. But, as they are always filled with busy people going about their work, they also connect humanity to nature and reflect the activities that took place within landscapes that were often man-made.

Countering the truism that Constable was parochial is the fact that `The Hay Wain' (1821) made a much bigger impression in France than it did in Britain. On seeing the picture at the Salon in the Louvre, Eugène Delacroix reworked `The Massacre At Chios' (1824) and Moorby points out that Constable had a huge impact on the Barbizon School that, in turn, helped influence Impressionism.

In 1831, Constable persuaded the Academy to show his `Salisbury Cathedral From the Meadows' next to Turner's `Caligula's Palace and Bridge' and Concannon explains how the contrasts between the images underscore the similarities between the artists, as Constable depicted the Church of England under a cloud, while Turner exposed the folly of imperial grandiosity. Both were political paintings, but they adopted different ways to question a world in need of reform and Concannon suggests that Constable's truth and Turner's poetry were very much complementary and on a par.

Moorby explains how Constable's association with Suffolk shouldn't obscure the fact that he spent long periods in London, with works like `Sir Richard Steele's Cottage, Hampstead' (1831-32) and

`Hampstead Heath With a Rainbow' (1836) reflecting his private circumstances. With wife Maria Bicknell (seen in his 1816 portrait) suffering from consumption, he moved the family to Hampstead and Brighton in the hope her health would improve. As Concannon notes that he disliked the social scene that had grown up around the Prince Regent's patronising of the resort and he sought out reminders of home in canvases like `A Windmill Near Brighton' (1824). That said, he also attempted ambitious works like `Chain Pier, Brighton' (1826-27), which also attracted Turner's attention and it's intriguing to contrast his 1828 vista with Constable's. Moorby highlights how emotional the latter could be in pictures like `Rainstorm Over the Sea' (c.1824-28), which was painted around the time that Maria's condition worsened.

In 1832, Constable's 'The Opening of Waterloo Bridge ('Whitehall Stairs, June 18th, 1817')' was hung next to Turner's `Helvoetsluys; the City of Utrecht, 64, Going to Sea' at the Royal Academy and Moorby explains how competitive the latter was, while the former was keen to show his contemporaries that he was more than a one-trick pony. As Constable had used a lot of red in his depiction of a ceremonial, Turner added a blob of red to suggest something washed up on the shoreline to his own picture. Constable is said to have remarked that Turner had fired a gun. But Moorby plays down the rivalry and insists this would have been seen as a sly dig from one Academician to another that would not have been taken as a slight.

Goudie lauds Turner's `thundering' towards a new mode of painting in works like `The Thames Above Waterloo Bridge' (c.1830-35), which saw him add waxes and resins to oils so he can achieve a watercolour like consistency. Johns shows how Turner also pushed the envelope with titles, as `Snow Storm - Steam-Boat Off a Harbour's Mouth' (1842) was formally known as `Snow Storm – Steam-Boat Off a Harbour's Mouth Making Signals in Shallow Water, and Going By the Lead. The Author Was in this Storm on the Night the "Ariel" Left Harwich)'. According to Concannon, Turner was cross when the painting was referred to as `soap suds and whitewash', as he had endured the tempest whose severity he was trying to recreate,

This was from a period when Turner strove to reflect new technology in works such as `Keelmen Heaving in Coals By Moonlight' (1835), which not only conveys a nation that never sleeps in order to meet demand, but which also reflects an occupation that is in danger of disappearing as transportation shifts from waterways to railways. Goudie, however, opts to celebrate `The Blue Rigi, Sunrise' (1842), a watercolour he claims was four decades in the making. He describes its creation in riveting detail, as Turner used his long thumbnail to remove colour from the paper before adding little details like the dog leaping from a fisherman's boat into Lake Lucerne to scare off a duck. Concannon claims that Turner's people could sometimes be clumsy, but she commends the human element in `The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16 October 1834' (c.1834-35), as they are almost witnesses to the ending of the old order just two years after the passage of the Great Reform Act, which enfranchised some parts of the populace. She also points out the crowd element in the Venetian view, `Juliet and Her Nurse' (1836), which has returned to London for the first time in this exhibition since it was first shown. Critics grumbled about removing a beloved Shakespearean figure from Verona. But they also complained about the amount of light in a night scene, as fires, lanterns, and fireworks provide enough illumination for us to see how beautifully Turner has painted the revellers.

Over Constable's `On the River Stour (c.1834-37), Moorby speculates that Turner avoided domestic ties because he wanted to devote himself to his work. His mother had suffered from mental health problems and his view of family life was perhaps jaundiced as a result, although he remained very close to his father and had next to nothing to do with the raising of Evelina and Georgiana, his daughters with widowed companion, Sarah Danby. As we see Turner's `Mercury Sent to Admonish Aeneas' (1850), Goudie dismisses the idea that Turner was the radical visionary who hit the road while steady Constable stayed at home painting `A Cottage At East Bergholt' (c.1836). Concannon notes that each published a volume of prints to encapsulate their views on landscape painting. Thus, while they had different styles, they were the flipsides of the same coin.

Constable's last major work, `Stoke-by-Nayland' (c.1835-37), has been placed alongside Turner's `Norham Castle, Sunrise' (c.1845) at the Tate Britain show, as not only were they both unfinished, but they also use light to take the viewer to the places being depicted. Constable died in 1837 (leaving seven children), but Turner lived for another 15 years and created such iconic works as `The Fighting Temeraire, Tugged to Her Last Berth to be Broken Up' (1838) and `Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway' (1844). Indeed, he had yet to invent himself before his close contemporary died and the exhibition allows visitors the unique opportunity to trace their evolution and discover where they overlap and diverge in changing the face of British landscape art forever.

Luciano Emmer set a very high bar for art documentaries in the postwar period. But Exhibition on Screen has redefined the form over the last decade. With this latest addition to the landmark series, director David Bickerstaff and producer Phil Grabsky have produced another first-rate overview, which not only captures the rationale behind the exhibition, but also the reasons why the contrasting contributions of Turner and Constable have left such an indelible mark upon Western Art.

Photographed with typical care and clarity and accompanied by a delightful Asa Bennett score, the tour of the Tate Britain show comes with the insider insights of Amy Concannon and Nicola Moorby, whose unassuming expertise allows viewers to appreciate the layout of the exhibition, as well as the significance of the works on display. Richard Johns is equally assured, while Lachlan Goudie offers shrewd opinions while managing not to look too self-conscious, as he is asked to paint and sketch outdoors in Constable Country.

He is the only member of the quartet to go into much detail about technique and it's a bit disappointing that so little time was devoted to Turner's final 15 years and the reasons why his style moved so decisively away from the common ground he had occupied with Constable. A little more biographical background might also not have gone amiss, in order to show how the pictures fitted into the changing life situations of the two artists. They also sit in something of an historical void, as, while the word `change' is frequently mentioned, along with the threat posed by France, some more socio-political context is required to make sense of an era of reactionary Toryism and the effects of Whig reformism on a nation in which industrial developments had created an urban working class, while also decimating the rural economy. Both Turner and Constable were political artists and it might have been instructive to discover how they were regarded outside the London bubble. How, for example, was Constable viewed in Suffolk and to what extent was Turner motivated to create 550-odd oil paintings, 2000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper by the commercial realities he had learned during his youth?

Considering the effect that the respective deaths of Turner's father and Constable's wife had on their mental well-being, it's perhaps surprising that more was not said about the emotional content of their subsequent painting. A few more snippets like the lovely anecdote about the red blob might also have helped humanise the gimlet-focussed pair. However, there is only so much that can be accommodated in 90 minutes and one of the strengths of this engaging film is the measured rhythm that reflects the pace of pre-Victorian life. All in all, therefore, this is a worthy way to mark the 250th anniversaries of the most important painters in British art history.