Fire and Water: The Rivalry of Constable and Turner

Excellent online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the rivalry of the landscape artists Turner and Constable.

Matthew Morgan, who had been the director of Turner’s House clearly outlined the difference between the artists both in their art works and characters. He looked sat each in turn discussing their lives and influences.

He then went on to compare and contrast their work taking moments when they painted the same subject such as Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral and the Chain Pier in Brighton. he described how Constable created a sense of calm but Turner looked to heightened emotions. He ended by look at the famous Royal Academy show where they were showing side by side and Turner added a red buoy to a seascape on varnishing day.

There were insightful Q&A sessions and I suspect more than one of the audience had recently done the National Gallery course on the artist out of doors which I had also done. This talk made an interesting postscript to the course.


 

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