Landscape with Lake and Fallen Tree

1798

The large watercolours of North Wales

The large watercolour views he made in North Wales in 1798, such as his depiction of Caernarvon Castle, are counted among the great landscapes of European art; by the age of 25, according to Wilson, he had developed watercolour into a new medium capable of much the same expressive power as oils.

1799

Tears before a painting by Claude Lorrain

The collector John Julius Angerstein invited him to see his paintings; standing before Claude’s “The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba” Turner burst into tears and explained that he would never be able to paint anything like it. Only when he finished “Dido Building Carthage” (1815) did he feel he had achieved something comparable.

4 November 1799

Elected an associate of the Royal Academy

On 4 November 1799 Turner, by then a popular artist, was elected an associate (corresponding) member of the Royal Academy.

1801

The triumph of the “Bridgewater Sea Piece” at the Academy

“Dutch Boats in a Gale” (the “Bridgewater Sea Piece”), commissioned for 250 guineas by the Duke of Bridgewater, one of the richest men in England, “took the Academy by storm” and was hung in the best location of the whole exhibition: in the Great Room, centred, opposite the entrance.

10 February 1802

Becomes a Royal Academician

On 10 February 1802 he was granted the title of Royal Academician, which gave him the right to exhibit without passing the selection committee that previewed all works.

1802–1803

Paris and the Swiss Alps in a year of peace

In the only year without war in Europe between 1793 and 1814 (the Peace of Amiens, 1802–1803) a consortium of noblemen sponsored a visit to Paris, where he saw old master paintings in the Louvre, and then he toured the Swiss Alps; his Alpine sketches later let him represent “the sublime” in paintings such as “Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps” (1812).