We round up the reviews for the exhibition exploring the way in which the two artists intertwined lives and legacies.
The Guardian: **** “Turner or Constable: who’s the boss? Tate Britain’s exhibition of work by the two artists, subtitled Rivals and Originals, fudges the question.”
Oserver.co.uk: “Tate Britain’s show is a thrilling interplay of masterpieces – from Flatford Mill (1816-17) to The Blue Rigi (1842) – with smaller paintings, quickfire sketches and wild new images. It peaks and then it peaks again: Turner sunsets in one room, Constable clouds in the next, leading to the late works that exceed anything in English landscape art.”
Tatler.com: “Also, in many ways, the comparison feels unevenly weighted since Turner lived nearly 15 years longer than his ‘frenemy’. Either way, this exhibition is pure catnip. A blockbuster of a show which shows two British goliaths elevating landscape painting forever more, for the better.”
The Standard: ***** “This exhibition juxtaposes the two men’s work without resolving the rivalry. It’s by no means clear that Turner’s grandiloquence puts Constable’s domesticity to shame. In his great, historical or Biblical set pieces, Turner reminds one of GF Watts, who scares the life out of the viewer with apocalyptic destruction. And when we turn from a room of Constable outdoor oil sketches – direct and fresh – to encounter Snow Storm: Hannibal and the Army crossing the Alps, the great black snow clouds towering over the sun, it is to encounter theatre as art. It is simply impossible to compare Willy Lott’s cottage with that fury of the elements.”
The Arts Desk: ***** “This brilliantly researched exhibition is a mammoth achievement, and it offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But it is also somewhat overwhelming; so gird your loins, swallow a tin of spinach (a la Popeye) and get on down there. You’re in for a real treat.”
The Telegraph: ***** “A thrilling exhibition casts the landscape heavyweights in a whole new light.”
The FT: “Tate Britain’s Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals tells that exhilarating story. It celebrates landscape as their new area of opportunity, obsession and battleground, explores their stunningly different approaches, and dramatises how competition stimulated daring and experiment.”
The exhibition is on display until the 12th April 2026.