Les peintres de Barbizon et les Impressionnistes rendaient hommage à Constable comme à Turner. Ils savaient mieux que quiconque que ces deux peintres avaient tous deux atteint, à leur manière, les sommets de la peinture de paysage à la fin du XVIIIe siècle et dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle. Richard Parkes Bonington a ouvert l’art du paysage anglais à de nouveaux horizons, au-delà du Romantisme, dans la quête effrénée de la lumière et de la manière libre.

Serge Legat, historien de l’art : Serge Legat est conférencier des musées nationaux et professeur d’histoire de l’art à l’Institut d’Études Supérieures des Arts à Paris. Intervenant régulier de l’émission “Au cœur de l’Histoire” animée par Franck Ferrand sur Europe 1, pour les sujets traitant de la peinture ancienne, il est aussi intervenant dans le cadre de l’émission “Secrets d’Histoire” de Stéphane Bern sur France 2 et Vice-président des Amis du musée Gustave Moreau à Paris.

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Date limite d’inscription le 4 janvier 2026 (10 jours avant la date, nombre limité à 15) 

Marie-Christine Simiand, MBE Présidente de l’Alliance Grenoble-Oxford

Turner and Constable at the Tate Britain: Rivals and originals

As a new exhibition opens at the Tate Britain, Susan Gray delves into the intense rivalry between two of Britain’s most celebrated painters: Constable and Turner

Two of the biggest names in British art history, Joseph Mallord Willliam Turner and John Constable were born just a year apart, in 1775 and 1776 respectively.

It was Turner’s 250th anniversary in 2025 and now as we head into 2026 it’s time for Constable’s turn in the limelight, perfect timing then for a new exhibition examining the relationship between these two giants of the art world.

Turner and Constable Rivals and Originals

Turner and Constable Rivals and Originals, at London’s Tate Britain until 16 April 2026, places the two artists’ reputations for showdowns at the Royal Academy and cutting remarks towards each other, in a long lineage of artistic rivalries: from Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci in 16th-century Rome, to Gainsborough and Reynolds in 18th-century England, and Picasso and Matisse in interwar Paris. 

Curator Amy Concannon also draws out some of the similarities that unite the two artists, in particular their radical approach to the genre of landscape painting, raising its status and introducing new approaches and techniques.

What were the differences between Constable and Turner?

 Two portraits painted in 1799 reveal the artists’ differing backgrounds and career trajectories. J.M.W. Turner, Self Portrait c. 1799, shows an energetic, self-confident artist, facing his audience full on. Having first exhibited at the Royal Academy as a teenager in 1790, when he was training as an architectural draughtsman. Turner went on to exhibit at the annual Royal Academy exhibition almost every year for the rest of his life.

What was John Constable’s background?

 By contrast, John Constable by Ramsay Richard Reinagle c.1799, has more of the air of a country gentleman, with his neat cravat, buttoned-up dark coat and downcast gaze. 

This portrait marked Constable’s move from Suffolk to London in 1799, when he went to train at the Royal Academy. It was painted by fellow landscape artist, Richard Ramsey Reinagle, Constable’s housemate in Cecil Street, near the Strand. 

Constable’s parents were so pleased with Ramsey’s likeness of their son that it hung in their family home at East Bergholt. A self portrait by Constable in black pencil and chalk, dated 1799 – 1804, shows the same thoughtful expression, with the artist’s cheeks heightened in red chalk.

 Constable’s family were prosperous grain merchants on the River Stour in Suffolk and had deep reservations about their son becoming an artist, rather than joining the family business. 

Even a decade after he had settled in London, Constable’s family remained concerned by how little he was earning from painting – certainly not enough to provide for a gentleman’s lifestyle. His mother wrote to him that his “father’s earnest wish is to have you earn money”. The death of Constable’s father in 1816, allowed him at last to marry Maria Bicknell in 1816, after a seven-year courtship. They went on to have seven children.

author : Susan Gray in Discover Britain’s article (excerpts)