At Venaria Reale for the first time in Italy a major exhibition on John Constable

For the first time in Italy it will be possible to see a major exhibition dedicated to John Constable (East Bergholt, 1776 - London, 1837), together with William Turner maximum exponent of English Romantic painting: from October 25, 2022 to February 5, 2023, the Reggia di Venaria Reale will in fact host the exhibition John Constable. Landscapes of the Soul. After the major exhibition An Infinite Beauty. Landscape in Italy from Romantic Painting to Contemporary Art (concluded in February 2022), the Reggia di Venaria thus continues the investigation begun in 2021 on the theme of landscape by widening its gaze in the European sphere and proposes for the first time in Italy an exhibition on Constable. The exhibition recounts and chronologically traces the entire artistic career of the famous painter through the works of the Tate in London and is organized in collaboration with this institution, as part of the framework agreement signed last year with Fondazione Torino Musei and specifically with GAM Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Torino.

The exhibition consists of more than fifty works, ranging from sketches and small paintings made en plein air, to the most important and vast romantic landscapes, such as the famous view of Stratford Mill, depicting places in the immediate vicinity of his native village, Dedham Vale, in the county of Suffolk. Places of affection, sentimentally important to this great arist who - unlike his equally famous colleague Turner, who was a great traveler - never left his beloved England and depicted Nature in a “picturesque” key, to use the famous terminology of philosopher Immanuel Kant’s Aesthetics. Thus distinguishing himself from Turner-a painter of the “Sublime,” that is, of a Nature that fascinates but also instills fear and even terror in Man, such as a sea storm, or a blizzard-Constable depicts instead a welcoming, reassuring Nature in which one can relax, fall asleep serenely.

While Turner traveled incessantly from Britain to continental Europe, Constable focused his painting on places closely associated with his life and family. His pictures present the lush, laughing countryside of Suffolk, where he was born and raised, as well as the beautiful towns of Salisbury, Hampstead, and Brighton that he frequented in the company of his family and friends. Places emblematic of the history of his “affections,” as his principal biographer C. R. Leslie wrote. Also in the exhibition are works by artists coeval with Constable, in some cases competitors, such as Turner, John Linnell, Benjamin West and others, whose work intertwines and compares with Constable’s.

The Tate has the world’s most important collection of Constable’s work. The exhibition spans the entire chronological span of his output and includes landscapes, drawings, watercolors, etchings and portraits. After this stop at the Reggia di Venaria, the works will return to the United Kingdom at the Tate and will not be seen outside England for a long time.

Tickets: Full: 12 euros; Reduced: 10 euros (Groups of min. 12, max. 25 people); Reduced children: 6 euros (children aged 6 to 20 and university students under 26); Schools: 3 euros (Minimum class of 12, maximum 25 students, free admission for 1 accompanying person for every 12 students); Free: Under 6 years old. For more information, free admission and reductions: lavenaria.it

Pictured: John Constable, Salisbury Cathedral seen from the Meadows (1831; oil on canvas, 153.7 x 190 cm; London, Tate)

At Venaria Reale for the first time in Italy a major exhibition on John Constable

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