The year 1802 saw his first visit to Paris, where he studied the Old Masters in the Louvre, above all Dutch seascapes and Claude Lorrain's compositions, which lastingly influenced him. Turner's first private showing, at his own house, followed in 1804. During this period, thanks to an increasing concentration on the atmospheric effects of light, his original style began to evolve, a process that culminated during trips to Italy in 1811 and 1829.

In his atmospheric depictions of shipwrecks and natural disasters, perhaps inspired by such works as The Battle of Trafalgar by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, who lived in Turner's neighborhood, reality and fantasy merge, and color is used to metaphorically evoke the power of natural phenomena. By abandoning form or merely adumbrating it, Turner lent color autonomy and endowed it with a puissance of its own. This achievement was to prove especially influential on twentieth century art.