A hanging offence

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition was as crammed with fashionable society in 1831 as the walls were with pictures, hung frame rubbing frame, in tiers on the walls of Somerset House, its home in those years. Position was all. To be “skyed” high up the wall could kill a reputation, almost requiring a challenge to a duel. John Constable had a hand in hanging the paintings at the Academy that year, and it was no wonder that JMW Turner (given to taking offence) saw red when, at the last minute, two of his classically themed canvasses were separated by Constable’s own Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows. Turner wouldn’t believe the arrangement favoured both painters. From today, visitors to Tate Britain can judge for themselves how the Constable looks next to the very same Turner it nudged 187 years ago.