Room 40

A wagon stands in the water in Constable’s The Hay Wain. In Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed, a train advances across a bridge through rain and pale light. The two pictures give very different rhythms to a landscape shaped by people. Constable returned to the countryside around his Suffolk home. Turner travelled widely and painted the effects of modern transport as well as storms, sea and sunlight. Corot brought his own attention to light and atmosphere to French and Italian views. Move between one bright passage and another, then compare how sharply each artist defines an edge. The room rewards a slow look at weather that seems to be changing.