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New Exhibitions in November

It's surely an anniversary the Tate has long been counting down to: JMW Turner was born in 1775, John Constable in 1776. To mark the 250 years of two of the country's greatest painters, Turner and Constable  is on at Tate Britain from November 27 to April 12. Rivals with very different approaches to landscape painting, they were both hugely influential. More than 170 works are promised, with Turner's Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons  and Constable's White Horse  coming home from the US for the show. Before those two were even born, Joseph Wright of Derby had already painted his most famous picture, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump . It'll be part of Wright of Derby: From the Shadows   at the National Gallery from November 7 to May 10, which is intended to challenge the view of Wright as just a painter of light and shade and to illustrate how he used the night to explore deeper and more sombre themes. Only 20 or so works, however, making it a disappo...

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Opening in February

Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon are the stars of Tate Britain's big overview of British 20th-century figurative painting, All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life, which starts on February 28 and runs until August 27. It promises about 100 works, with Walter Sickert, Stanley Spencer and Frank Auerbach among the other artists featured. 

Over at the National Gallery, a small free display in Room 1 marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of Bartolome Esteban Murillo by showcasing his only two known self-portraits. They can be seen from February 28 to May 21.

Dulwich Picture Gallery's new exhibition is devoted to the Canadian artist David Milne, a contemporary of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, the subjects of an enlightening Dulwich show a few years ago. David Milne: Modern Painting opens February 14 and is on until May 7.
The Victoria & Albert Museum has a new show looking at the golden age of luxury sea travel: Ocean Liners: Speed & Style. Running from February 3 to June 10, it will explore in more than 250 objects the design and cultural impact of a mode of a transport that's now virtually disappeared.

Outside London, Chichester's Pallant House Gallery will draw on its significant collection for POP! Art in a Changing Britain, which starts on February 24. Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi are among the artists featured until May 7.

Finally, there's a big Rubens exhibition arriving at thStädel Museum in Frankfurt from Vienna, where it had good reviews. Rubens: The Power of Transformation includes 31 paintings by the Flemish master, and Titian and Tintoretto are also represented. Running from February 8 to May 21, the exhibition aims to show how Rubens drew on the art of previous generations and why he's still an artist to be reckoned with. 

Image

David Milne, Pink Reflections, Bishop's Pond, 1920, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Gift from the Douglas M. Duncan Collection, 1970. Photo: NGC. (c) The Estate of David Milne.

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