Last Berth To Be Broken Up, 1838" (1839; National Gallery), a tribute to the passing age of sailing ships as they were about to be replaced by steam-powered vessels; and "Rain, Steam, and Speed--the Great Western Railway" (1844; National Gallery [see photograph]), which expresses Turner's intense interest in the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution. Actually, the first picture to be hung in Britain's National Gallery was the opalescent "Venice from the Steps ofthe Europa" (1842), presented in 1847, while Turner was still alive. Turner's preoccupation with the elements of fire and water appears in the “Burning of the Houses of Parliament" (1835; Tate Gallery), in the large sketch "Fire at Sea" (Tate Gallery), and in "Rockets and Blue Lights" (1840; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass.). John Constable is the landscape artist who, together with Turner, dominated English painting of the XIXth century. Although he showed an early talent for art and began painting his native Suffolk scenery before he left school, his great originality matured slowly. He committed himself to a career as an artist only in 1799, when he joined the Royal Academy Schools and it was not until 1829 that he was grudgingly made a full Academician, elected by a majority of only one vote. In 1816 he became financially secure on the death of his father and married Maria Bicknell after a seven-year courtship and in the fact of strong opposition from her family. During the 1820s he began to win recognition: The Hay Wain (National Gallery, London, 1821) won a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1824 and Constable was admired by Delacroix and Bonington among others. His wife died in 1828, however, and the remaining years of his life were clouded by despondency. After spending some years working in the picturesque tradition of landscape and the manner of Gainsborough, Constable developed his own original treatm...
