Celebrating Artistic Legacy: A New Collaboration with Tate

Daler-Rowney is proud to join Tate in celebrating Turner & Constable: Rivals & Originals, a landmark exhibition at Tate Britain running from 27 November 2025 to 12 April 2026. Bringing together more than 170 works across twelve rooms, the exhibition presents J.M.W. Turner and John Constable side by side, offering a rare opportunity to explore how their contrasting backgrounds and artistic philosophies shaped the course of British landscape painting. As 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of both artists’ births, this collaboration feels especially meaningful.

Turner and Constable transformed the way artists understood nature. Turner sought drama, atmosphere and shifting light, informed by extensive travel and a fascination with natural phenomena. Constable, meanwhile, devoted himself to familiar rural scenes, capturing the weather, textures and quiet rhythms of the Suffolk countryside. Their differences sparked a rivalry that pushed both artists towards new techniques, new ways of seeing, and ultimately a modern understanding of landscape that still resonates today. Tate’s exhibition highlights this dynamic, while also presenting contemporary responses from artists such as Bridget Riley, Frank Bowling, George Shaw and Emma Stibbon, underscoring the ongoing influence of both painters.

For Daler-Rowney, this collaboration is rooted in shared history. Since 1783, we have crafted art materials in the UK with a focus on supporting artistic expression. Our connection to Turner reaches back to 1815, when Rowney, later becoming Daler-Rowney, was appointed his official lithographer. This partnership reflects a tradition of working directly with artists to understand their needs and to help shape the tools of their practice. Today, that spirit continues.

To accompany the exhibition, we have developed a collection of five Art Sets that take inspiration from Turner, Constable, Ithell Colquhoun and Wassily Kandinsky. Each set draws on the palettes, textures and visual approaches associated with these artists. From the soft, atmospheric light characteristic of Constable’s landscapes to the expressive colour contrasts linked with Turner’s dramatic skies, the sets are designed to help artists explore a broad range of techniques and materials informed by their work. The inclusion of Colquhoun and Kandinsky adds a further dimension, celebrating Surrealist imagination and the pioneering move towards abstraction.

These sets serve as an invitation to engage with the exhibition in a hands-on way: to experiment with colour, mood and mark-making in response to the ideas and innovations that shaped generations of painters. As Tate Britain reflects on how Turner and Constable challenged convention and expanded the possibilities of landscape art, this collaboration offers a practical way to connect with that legacy through contemporary materials.

The exhibition is a testament to how rivalry, originality and artistic curiosity can redefine an entire genre. Through this partnership with Tate, we hope to honour that history while encouraging artists today to explore their own perspectives with confidence and imagination.