The common perception of J. M. W. Turner as an artist with a pleasant line in landscape paintings will be turned on its head in a forthcoming exhibition as Tate Britain presents him as a rampant egotist determined to outdo his rivals.

The artist, a Cockney-accented son of a barber, will be portrayed as a master of one-upmanship who strove constantly to show that he was better than both his contemporaries and the Old Masters who preceded him.

The show, which opens on September 23, will show Turner’s works alongside the paintings that he was competing against, many for the first time.

Examples include Turner’s seascape Dutch Boats in a Gale, which he created to show that his talents exceeded Willem Van de Velde the Younger. His painting will hang alongside Van de Velde’s A Rising Gale for the first time in 170 years. Turner ensured that his work was a foot wider and a foot taller and with a greater sense of drama.

Turner also had a fierce rivalry with John Constable, whom he sought to upstage at a Royal Academy exhibition in 1832. Constable had spent more than a decade perfecting The Opening of Waterloo Bridge, only to find that it would be hanging next to one of Turner’s works. Turner’s marine painting, Helvoetsluys, was smaller and less vibrantly coloured than Constable’s, but Turner made an adjustment days before the exhibition was due to open by adding a bright red buoy in the middle of the painting.

David Solkin, dean of the Courtauld Institute of Art and curator of the exhibition, said that Turner may have been taking revenge for an earlier argument, in which he had accused Constable of moving paintings at a previous exhibition so that Turner had a less favourable spot. “So, in 1832 he says: ‘Right. I’ve got my painting hanging right next to Constable’s and I’m going to make his picture look bad. Compared to mine, it will look like an overworked monstrosity.”

When the exhibition opened, Constable reportedly said that Turner “has been here, and fired a gun”.

Professor Solkin said that Turner was always conscious of how he would be remembered. “He did all this in the full glare of publicity,” he said. “He publicly invited comparisons with Old Master painters. He wasn’t interested in finishing second. He wanted to be equal first, at least.”

Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain, said that the exhibition had taken six years to organise because of the difficulty of borrowing exactly the right paintings. “I think it will change Turner’s reputation in the public mind,” he said. “But I think that is a good thing.”

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010