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Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape
Born just fourteen months apart, one in London and the other in rural Suffolk, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable went on to change the face of British art.
The two men have routinely been seen as polar opposites, not least by their peers. Differing in temperament, background, beliefs and vision, they created images as dissimilar as their personalities.
Yet in many ways they were fellow travellers. As children of the late 18 th century, both faced the same challenges and opportunities. Above all, they shared common cause as champions of a distinctively British art. Through their work, they fought for the recognition and appreciation of landscape painting – and in doing so ensured their reputations were forever intertwined and interlinked.
Nicola Moorby offers us a fresh perspective on two extraordinary artists, uncovering the layers of fiction that have embellished and disguised their greatest achievements. For Turner & Constable is not just a tale of two artists; it is also the story of the triumph of landscape painting.
The two men have routinely been seen as polar opposites, not least by their peers. Differing in temperament, background, beliefs and vision, they created images as dissimilar as their personalities.
Yet in many ways they were fellow travellers. As children of the late 18 th century, both faced the same challenges and opportunities. Above all, they shared common cause as champions of a distinctively British art. Through their work, they fought for the recognition and appreciation of landscape painting – and in doing so ensured their reputations were forever intertwined and interlinked.
Nicola Moorby offers us a fresh perspective on two extraordinary artists, uncovering the layers of fiction that have embellished and disguised their greatest achievements. For Turner & Constable is not just a tale of two artists; it is also the story of the triumph of landscape painting.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published March 11, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 5, 2026
Moorby has skilfully blended the life stories of Turner and Constable with a history and description of their art works and their places in the English Royal Academy. It would be very easy to get bogged down in detail in a study of this sort, especially as one of her central themes is the historically assumed conflict between the two great artists who were practicing at the same time and competing for recognition, prestige and sales.
She concludes that the rumoured antagonism has been much inflated. Yes, they were inevitably rivals, but not the personal enemies that they have been held to be.
One of the things that interested me most was the unfolding of the ways in which the Royal Academy worked in late Georgian and early Victorian England.
When Turner and Constable began their careers, the Academy’s accepted style derived from Reynolds’ ideas, the most influential being that of ‘the grand style’ , which advocated the idealisation of nature through application of the classical ideal by referring to Greek Roman and Renaissance art and artists. It was very flexible, and could be applied to any genre.
The annual Academy Exhibition was all important – to be selected was just the first step, then there was a hierarchy of which room, which wall and what height your painting would be hung.
Genres were assigned a notional ranking based on their perceived cultural value, following Renaissance principles. The most highly thought of were those believed to require the greatest imaginative effort from the artist (generally based around dramatic human figures).
Top spot went to history painting – themes from mythology, history or literature; portraiture; genre pictures -scenes of everyday life. (p33).
Oils took precedence over watercolours, drawings and prints. Size mattered – the bigger the more prestigious.
The preferred surface was smooth, with no trace of brush work.
Both Turner and Constable broke with this preferred style increasingly over the years.
Turner succeeded early – he was very astute in making sure he ticked the boxes for virtuosity, versatility and scholarly allusion. Eg The Battle of the Nile, and visual references to Claude Lorrain. Every year he produced a work referencing an earlier European artist – from all of Italian, French, Dutch and Flemish traditions.
He didn’t have a well-to-do father like Constable, and had to make sure that his works sold. His choice of themes, production of watercolours and, later, prints, guaranteed a steady income.
Constable on the other hand was supported for years by his father, as he worked persistently at trying to perfect his view of a true natural world, the one he knew from his own Sussex territory.
Turner was criticised for his uncouth behaviour, his mercenary approach, his choice of subject matter and, later, his vigorous impressionistic brushstrokes and great use of chrome yellow.
Constable was criticised for the local rural nature of his painting, the dominance of greens and whites in his paintings and lack of inspiration. He was also attacked as he grew to apply paint more thickly, with visible brushstrokes.
Constable painted more in the picturesque mode – to inspire feelings of contemplation or reveries, possibly a thoughtful meditation on past and present and man’s relationship with nature. Quiet calm.
Both were fascinated by rivers and the sky but their treatment was completely different.
Turner was more given to the sublime – energised with drama, movement, spectacle and a narrative where man is pitted against nature, chaos. (70-71) His ideas erupted from his mind.
Constable’s were firmly rooted in reality, and naturalism sat front and centre..(106). He aimed to show beauty within the banal, ‘using naturalism to underscore authenticity and truthfulness’. (123) Constable had an unexpected but dramatic effect on French art – the plein air movement, and Turner’s later works fuelled Monet’s interest in Impressionism.
Odd as it seems today, it was Constable who was considered the more radical in the nineteenth century, because of his choice of subject matter which to us now. But now we see Turner as the radical modern and Constable the anti-modern traditionalist.
Moorby describes the arrival of Constable’s The Hay Wain as ‘like a pebble dropping into a Parisian millpond’ when it was first displayed there. It was his naturalness, his immediacy, his ‘rich and true natural effects’ and use of many colours of green, for instance that so impressed leading French artists like Delacroix.
The book is illuminating and easy to read despite the density of its subject matter. It’s a pity that the illustrations are of such poor quality that you can’t really see what they are – but there are many examples of both artists’ works online and I found that I wanted to have the computer on while I was reading the book so I could see what she was writing about. No doubt more colour illustrations and art quality paper would have pushed up the price significantly.
She concludes that the rumoured antagonism has been much inflated. Yes, they were inevitably rivals, but not the personal enemies that they have been held to be.
One of the things that interested me most was the unfolding of the ways in which the Royal Academy worked in late Georgian and early Victorian England.
When Turner and Constable began their careers, the Academy’s accepted style derived from Reynolds’ ideas, the most influential being that of ‘the grand style’ , which advocated the idealisation of nature through application of the classical ideal by referring to Greek Roman and Renaissance art and artists. It was very flexible, and could be applied to any genre.
The annual Academy Exhibition was all important – to be selected was just the first step, then there was a hierarchy of which room, which wall and what height your painting would be hung.
Genres were assigned a notional ranking based on their perceived cultural value, following Renaissance principles. The most highly thought of were those believed to require the greatest imaginative effort from the artist (generally based around dramatic human figures).
Top spot went to history painting – themes from mythology, history or literature; portraiture; genre pictures -scenes of everyday life. (p33).
Oils took precedence over watercolours, drawings and prints. Size mattered – the bigger the more prestigious.
The preferred surface was smooth, with no trace of brush work.
Both Turner and Constable broke with this preferred style increasingly over the years.
Turner succeeded early – he was very astute in making sure he ticked the boxes for virtuosity, versatility and scholarly allusion. Eg The Battle of the Nile, and visual references to Claude Lorrain. Every year he produced a work referencing an earlier European artist – from all of Italian, French, Dutch and Flemish traditions.
He didn’t have a well-to-do father like Constable, and had to make sure that his works sold. His choice of themes, production of watercolours and, later, prints, guaranteed a steady income.
Constable on the other hand was supported for years by his father, as he worked persistently at trying to perfect his view of a true natural world, the one he knew from his own Sussex territory.
Turner was criticised for his uncouth behaviour, his mercenary approach, his choice of subject matter and, later, his vigorous impressionistic brushstrokes and great use of chrome yellow.
Constable was criticised for the local rural nature of his painting, the dominance of greens and whites in his paintings and lack of inspiration. He was also attacked as he grew to apply paint more thickly, with visible brushstrokes.
Constable painted more in the picturesque mode – to inspire feelings of contemplation or reveries, possibly a thoughtful meditation on past and present and man’s relationship with nature. Quiet calm.
Both were fascinated by rivers and the sky but their treatment was completely different.
Turner was more given to the sublime – energised with drama, movement, spectacle and a narrative where man is pitted against nature, chaos. (70-71) His ideas erupted from his mind.
Constable’s were firmly rooted in reality, and naturalism sat front and centre..(106). He aimed to show beauty within the banal, ‘using naturalism to underscore authenticity and truthfulness’. (123) Constable had an unexpected but dramatic effect on French art – the plein air movement, and Turner’s later works fuelled Monet’s interest in Impressionism.
Odd as it seems today, it was Constable who was considered the more radical in the nineteenth century, because of his choice of subject matter which to us now. But now we see Turner as the radical modern and Constable the anti-modern traditionalist.
Moorby describes the arrival of Constable’s The Hay Wain as ‘like a pebble dropping into a Parisian millpond’ when it was first displayed there. It was his naturalness, his immediacy, his ‘rich and true natural effects’ and use of many colours of green, for instance that so impressed leading French artists like Delacroix.
The book is illuminating and easy to read despite the density of its subject matter. It’s a pity that the illustrations are of such poor quality that you can’t really see what they are – but there are many examples of both artists’ works online and I found that I wanted to have the computer on while I was reading the book so I could see what she was writing about. No doubt more colour illustrations and art quality paper would have pushed up the price significantly.
June 20, 2025
If you are an art fan who likes landscape, you will enjoy this book.
This is about the history of two of the most famus landscape painter. This in not a how to book.
This is about the history of two of the most famus landscape painter. This in not a how to book.
January 11, 2026
A really excellent biography, elegantly bringing both men to life but avoiding the obvious compare-and-contrast that dogged them in both life and death.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews