UK BLOG

'Rivalry, obsession, jealousy... ', few art exhibitions have been so tantalisingly pitched as Tate Britain's latest offering, 'Turner and the Masters'.

Famed primarily for his landscape paintings, J M W Turner was, perhaps as all artists should be, something of an eccentric — a precocious working-class lad who churned out painting after painting (earning himself a fortune in the process), owned a pub, spent most of his time with his father and was legendarily tight with money. But there was nothing idiosyncratic about the scale of his ambition.

As this exhibition demonstrates, Turner aspired to be compared to the great masters — from Canaletto and Rubens to Rembrandt and Titian — and would stop at almost nothing to trump his rivals (once upstaging John Constable with the last minute addition of a dab of red paint). Tate Britain pairs some of Turner's works with the corresponding pieces that inspired it and leaves you to decide whether Turner innovated, or merely followed.

'Turner and the Masters', from 23 September until 31 January 2010. Admission £12.50. For more information visit: tate.org.uk