Turner’s last appearance at the Royal Academy was in 1850, when he showed four pictures of the story of Dido and Aeneas. These were final tributes to Claude, in the vivid colouring of Turner’s late style. The Visit to the Tomb (also shown in this room) is the third in the series.

Here, in the concluding scene, Dido and her attendants watch as Aeneas leaves Carthage for Italy. Turner showed the picture accompanied by lines from his poem The Fallacies of Hope. However, The Spectator thought the fallacy was there being ‘any hope of understanding what the picture means.’