Turner and Constable

Charting the parallel careers and lives of J. M. W. Turner and John Constable, whose distinct artistic visions revolutionized British art and landscape painting.

J. M. W. Turner and John Constable are Britain’s two most famous artists. They were also exact contemporaries. Yet their lives and works could not have been more different. By delving into their contrasting backgrounds and biographies, paintings and private lives, this book uncovers a fascinating history of symmetry and equilibrium, contrast and coincidence. It is the tale of two artists—the “yin and yang” of the art world—complementary opposites who between them transformed the shape of British art.
 
Traditionally the two men have been cast as rivals, even enemies. This book reveals a more nuanced account, reexamining those moments when their paths crossed as competitors but also as colleagues and even, at times, friends. Toe-to-toe they shared the fight for the recognition and appreciation of landscape and in doing so ensured their reputations were forever intertwined and interlinked. Ultimately the story of Turner and Constable is the story of brothers in arts, the twin pillars of landscape painting at its greatest and most influential moment.