Paintings that led to ruddy great row reunited

THEIR RIVALRY was almost as intense as their artistic talent was prodigious, and now one of the most legendary events in the history of the Summer Exhibition is to be showcased for the 21st century.

Two paintings by the Royal Academy Schools’ mostillustrious graduates, JMW Turner and John Constable, are being reunited for the first time since the artists clashed at the exhibition in 1832.

The paintings will be on show at the Royal Academy in London from today, to give the public the first chance to witness the two works together since the infamous events of nearly two centuries ago.

On the eve of the Summer Exhibition, Royal Academicians gathered for Varnishing Day, an opportunity to make last-minute revisions to their artworks.

When Turner saw his muted seascape Helvoetsluys hung next to Constable’s scarlet-flecked Thames scene, The Opening of

Waterloo, he allegedly added a small dab of red paint to the canvas, which he then converted into an image of a buoy floating in the sea.

Turner’s intention, seemingly, was to suggest by the nonchalant addition of this one pictorial detail that Constable’s painting, traversed by swathes of scarlet paint, was unnaturally ruddy in character.

This version of events is a judgement that later critics, and even film-makers, such as Mike Leigh in the 2014 movie, Mr

Turner, have tended to support.

A spokesman for the Royal Academy said: “By reuniting both pictures in the newly inaugurated Collection Gallery, the RA invites visitors to make up their own minds regarding the relationship between the two rivals.”

The two paintings will be on display as part of the free exhibition in the Collection Gallery at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from today until March 31.

Visitors can make up their own minds regarding the relationship between the two rivals.