The Guardian

Adrian Searle

Boiling portentous skies versus two men and a dog

"JMW Turner is beaten by John Constable in this mighty show. But who cares when the work is so sublime you can hear the squelching and smell the river?"

The Telegraph

Alastair Sooke

There’s one clear winner in my eyes

"This could have been so dutiful and boring, a box-ticking exercise undertaken by an institution that, in recent years, has sometimes seemed hostile to canonical artists. Instead, across 12 rooms, it proves absorbing – and audacious, with many mischievous moments in which one artist appears to occupy the other's patch. Thrilling stuff."

The Wall Street Journal

Mary Tompkins Lewis

English Masters Side by Side

"Tate Britain mounts a spectacular show of the two contemporaries, who approached landscape painting with a shared respect for nature but vividly individualistic styles."

The Times

Waldemar Januszczak

Turner v Constable — and my winner is…

"Like an especially annoying shaggy dog story, the face-off at Tate Britain winds here, there and everywhere without ever coming to a meaningful conclusion. This indecision might have been good enough for 2025, but not for 2026. The new year deserves a new determination to finish the job. It's a rousing display. So let's sift through it properly and come to a rousing conclusion."

The New York Times

Emily LaBarge

These Rivals Wanted Art Fans to Pick a Side. This Show Lets You Choose Both.

"But as its title — “Rivals and Originals” — emphasizes, Turner and Constable, though perhaps fueled by competition, both avowedly plowed their own furrows and developed distinct approaches to landscape painting."

The Observer

Laura Cumming

Turner and Constable as they've never been seen before

"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."

Financial Times

Jackie Wullschläger

Turner and Constable face off exhilaratingly at Tate Britain

"Critics at the time marvelled at “Turner’s fire and Constable’s rain”, declared that Constable was “all truth” and Turner “all poetry”, though the paintings also share much: majestic composition, exaltation of nature, nostalgic sentiment."