The Scottish National Gallery’s pairing of two masterpieces – a ‘new’ Constable and McTaggart’s The Storm – is inspired and impressive

(The Scotsman)

One of the greatest masterpieces of British art, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831) is one of a monumental series of ‘six-footer’ canvases painted by John Constable and was considered by the artist to convey ‘the fullest impression of the compass of his art’.

Painted in the aftermath of the death of the artist’s beloved wife Maria, this turbulent landscape is the most visually spectacular of all the ‘six-footers’ and the one of which he was most proud, referring to it as ‘The Great Salisbury’.

It will be shown in dialogue with one of the most powerful and celebrated of all Scottish landscape paintings: William McTaggart’s The Storm (1890). Constable’s work was a source of profound inspiration for William McTaggart throughout much of his career, both on an artistic and personal level, and the display will explore the transformative influence of his artistic practice and technique on the ‘Father of Scottish Painting’.