Sunday Salon: Constable and Turner

Sunday Salon: Constable and Turner

Two giants of British art. Two radically different visions of the landscape. One unforgettable afternoon!

Join me for a special Sunday Salon exploring J. M. W. Turner and John Constable, ahead of Tate Britain’s much-anticipated Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals exhibition (27 November 2025 – 12 April 2026).

The afternoon will feature two 45-minute illustrated talks, with a short break in between.

CONSTABLE – Chocolate Box Painter or Country Rebel?

“I should paint my own places best.”

John Constable transformed the way we see the English landscape.

While most landscape painters of his day travelled extensively to find ‘picturesque’ or ‘sublime’ scenery, Constable never left England. He instead embarked on a journey to create unique, deeply personal images of the countryside round his boyhood home of East Bergholt. His name is so closely associated with his native Suffolk that the area is often referred to as “Constable country.”

For many, Constable conjures up images of chocolate boxes and biscuit tins. This talk will demolish this association and give Constable the respect he deserves – as a true revolutionary.

J. M. W. TURNER: The Painter of Light

It is difficult now to imagine that Turner’s landscapes were savaged by critics at the 1836 summer exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Was he a Master or a madman?

Turner’s intense chromatic freedom and atmospheric uncertainties were difficult to digest. “Indistinctness is my forte” he explained to a bewildered public.

If his paintings drew strong reactions it was because they were ground breaking, emotional, experimental. They had a powerful impact on artists for years to come, influencing the Impressionists among others.

Ruskin presented him as a Romantic hero, master of the moods of nature, and today many consider him to be Britain’s best painter. You can make your own mind up when we look at his best-known works, with a focus on his later paintings.

For more information and to find out about future talks please visit www.stellagracelyons.co.uk

Stella Grace Lyons is a freelance Art History lecturer, speaker and writer accredited with The Arts Society. She has lectured across the UK, Ireland, Spain, Norway, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Malaysia and will soon embark on a lecturing tour in Australasia.

Stella gained her BA in the History of Art with a 1st class in her dissertation from the University of Bristol (2007-2011), and her MA in History of Art from the University of Warwick.

She spent a year studying Renaissance art in Italy at the British Institute of Florence, and three months studying Venetian art in Venice. In addition, she attended drawing classes at the prestigious Charles H. Cecil studios in Florence, a private atelier that follows a curriculum based on the leading ateliers of nineteenth century Paris.

Stella runs her own Art History lectures and is a regular lecturer in the UK and Europe for The Arts Society, ACE Cultural Tours, Hebridean Island Cruises, Saga’s Art Appreciation Tours, and the National Trust, amongst others. Stella is also a part-time lecturer for the University of South Wales.

She has written about art for several publications and her article on Norwegian art was recently featured on the front cover of the Arts Society Magazine. In addition to her lecturing work, Stella works as an artist’s model for the internationally renowned figurative artist, Harry Holland.