First Italian exhibition of John Constable opens at Reggia di Venaria

The Reggia di Venaria near Turin will host the first Italian exhibition dedicated to John Constable, opening October 25, 2022. The show features over 50 works—including sketches, watercolours, engravings, portraits, and small en plein air landscapes—from the Tate UK, which holds the world's largest Constable collection. The exhibition results from an agreement between Fondazione Torino Musei and Tate UK signed last year. Constable (1776–1837), a leading Romantic landscape painter, is presented as the counterpart to his contemporary J.M.W. Turner: Constable's nature is reassuring and welcoming, depicting beloved locations such as Suffolk, Salisbury, Hampstead, and Brighton, while Turner's nature inspires fear through storms and the sublime. Some Turner works are also included. After the exhibition closes on February 5, 2023, the loaned works will return to the Tate and will not be available outside England for a long time.