Turner achieved success at the Royal Academy at an early age, joining its schools, aged fourteen, in 1789, and becoming a full member not much more than twelve years later. At the outset of his career, the institution was really the only place in London in which artistic merit was regularly assessed. It was also the focus of patronage and commercial endeavour. From 1796 onwards Turner exhibited at least one painting in oils there almost every year until 1850, and for much of the first half of his career he also displayed ambitious large watercolours that gained recognition for the previously overlooked expressive potential of that medium.

Aspirations for British art in the 1790s focused on the Grand Style, as epitomised by the evocations of classical or biblical narratives in paintings by Titian, Poussin, Salvator Rosa or Claude Lorrain. While Turner assimilated the lessons of these great predecessors, he also attempted to create landscape subjects that commanded attention for themselves, regardless of the incidents they illustrated.

BP British Art Displays 1500-2011