Turner to be compared to Masters

Self-portrait of JMW Turner from the Turner Bequest at the Tate Collection

The paintings of JMW Turner are to be exhibited alongside those of the Old Masters for the first time.

The Tate Britain exhibition comes 200 years after Turner claimed he was equal to the likes of Rembrandt and Rubens.

"In one sense, Turner's wish is being fulfilled," said the gallery's director, Stephen Deuchar. "We're able to put him against the greats."

The announcement came as the Tate revealed it had had a record year for acquisitions and a rise in visitors.

A total of 494 works worth £63.1 million were obtained last year, of which 320 were gifts and bequests.

Among them were a replica of Damien Hirst's cut-up cows in tanks of formaldehyde and Louise Bourgeois' iconic steel and bronze spider, Maman, which used to greet visitors to Tate Modern.

Other acquisitions revealed in Tate's annual report included Stanley Spencer's 1939 painting The Woolshop and a Francis Bacon work, Figures in a Garden.

Visitor numbers rose from 7.7 million in 2006 to 7.71 million last year.

'Real lion'

Sometimes Turner will win and sometimes he will come a cropper Ian Warrell, co-curator of Turner and the Masters

The Turner and the Masters exhibition follows on the heels of a major retrospective of the Romantic landscape painter's work in the US last year, which the Tate helped to curate.

Born in 1775, Turner - the London-born son of a barber - was always confident of his abilities, once proclaiming: "I am the real lion. I am the great lion of the day."

He felt an intense rivalry with the old masters who inspired him - such as Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain.

When he bequeathed two paintings to the National Gallery, it was on the condition that they be hung next to his two favourite works by Lorrain. Turner died in 1851.

Maman was one of the works donated to the Tate over the last year

"It is no exaggeration to say that he was obsessed with the Old Masters and deeply knowledgeable about their work," said Mr Deuchar.

"He was keen to show that he could scale the heights that they achieved. He was a hugely competitive individual.

"The exhibition will bring together Turner and the artists he most admired and wanted to outdo."

Ian Warrell, co-curator of the Tate exhibition, added: "Turner would have made these connections but, until now, people would never have seen them side by side.

"Sometimes Turner will win and sometimes he will come a cropper. We know when we put his work next to a Rembrandt the Rembrandt will be much richer."

Other forthcoming fixtures at the Tate include shows on Van Dyck's output in Britain under the court of King Charles I, and the Pop Art movement.