Why was Fishermen at Sea important to J.M.W. Turner’s early career?

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J.M.W. Turner: The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up, 1838 — J.M.W. Turner *The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up, 1838*, oil on canvas by J.M.W. Turner, 1839; in the National Gallery, London.

Fishermen at Sea (1796) was a significant milestone in J.M.W. Turner’s early career because it was his first oil painting exhibited at the Royal Academy.

The work, a moonlight scene, was notable for earning acclaim from a contemporary critic who described it as the product "of an original mind." This positive reception helped establish Turner's reputation as a burgeoning talent, contributing to his rapid professional ascent; by 1799, he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy at the youngest permitted age of 24, and he became a full academician by 1802.1