Turner And Constable: Sketching From Nature

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, artists including JMW Turner and John Constable took their canvases outdoors and began drawing and painting landscapes in the open air, instead of in their studios.

Turner and Constable: Sketching from Nature brings together more than 60 works by Turner, Constable and their contemporaries, showing the different techniques each artist used to capture views of the landscapes of the time, both in Britain and abroad.

Oil sketches, watercolours and finished oil paintings from the Tate collection will be on show, showing picturesque scenes, rural nature, cities, rivers and coasts.

The practice of painting in the open air was new, daring and different at the time and the exhibition uses works by artistic rivals Turner and Constable, as well as George Stubbs, John Sell Cotman, John Crome and Francis Danby, among others, to show the differences and similarities between each artist’s methods.

The practice and techniques of sketching are explored and sometimes surprising connections are made between the artists involved.

More than 60 works by Turner, Constable and their contemporaries are on show.