After being shown at the Tate in London, Turner and the Masters at Paris’ Grand Palais places beautiful masterpieces by Canaletto, Rubens, Rembrandt and Titian next to some of JMW Turner’s most dramatic paintings, shining light on a lesser-known side of the British Romantic painter: his obsession to prove he was just as good, if not better, than the old masters who he so admired.

With more than 100 paintings and drawings from British and American collections, as well as loans from the Louvre, the Prado and English museums, this is a very special chance to see a collection of Turner’s work in Paris…

Turner was born into a working-class family and relentlessly pursued his ambition to be a great artist, once proclaiming, ‘I am the great lion of the day.’ He entered into direct competition with artists – past and present – who he considered as worthy rivals to his own fame.

In a final act of self-promotion, he asked in his bequest that two of his paintings hang in the National Gallery alongside the work of Claude Lorrain. Turner also had a great rivalry with John Constable. At the Royal Academy exhibition in 1832, Turner upstaged Constable by adding a dash of red to his own painting at the last minute – and Constable was none too pleased.

This is the first exhibition ever to explore the full range of Turner’s challenges to the past, and his fierce rivalry with his contemporaries. Many works are reunited here for the first time in hundreds of years and others have never been seen together before in this light, but opinions diverge on whether Turner always managed to better his rivals. This new Parisian exhibition will help you form your own opinion.

The Turner and the Masters exhibition is at the National Galleries of the Grand Palais (here) from 22nd February – 24th May 2010.

Open from Friday – Monday from 9am – 10pm, Wednesdays from 10am – 10pm, Thursdaus from 10am – 8pm and Tuesdays from 9am – 2pm. Closed 1st May.

Admission 11€ / 8€.

Official site: www.rmn.fr