'' Dido building Carthage , or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire '' is an oil on canvas painting by J. M. W. Turner . The painting is one of Turner 's most important works , greatly influenced by the luminous classical landscapes of Claude Lorraine . Turner described it as his chef d'oeuvre . First exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1815 , Turner kept the painting until he left it to the nation in the Turner Bequest . It has been held by the National Gallery in London since 1856 . The subject is a classical landscape taken from Virgil 's '' Aeneid '' . The figure in blue and white on the left is Dido , directing the builders of the new city of Carthage . The figure in front of her , wearing armour and facing away from the viewer , may be her Trojan lover Aeneas . Some children are playing with a flimsy toy boat in the water , symbolising the growing but fragile naval power of Carthage , while the tomb of her dead husband Sychaeus , on the right side of the painting , on the other bank of the estuary , foreshadows the eventual doom of Carthage . The painting measures by with the top half of the painting dominated by an intense yellow sunrise , symbolising the dawn of a new empire . The eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815 created magnificent sunrises and sunsets which may have inspired Turner 's paintings in this period . The painting was widely admired when it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1815 together '' Crossing the Brook '' , a pastoral landscape of the River Tamar in Devon also inspired by Claude . However , Turner 's work was criticised by Sir George Beaumont , who complained that it was " painted in false taste , not true to nature " and did not reach the heights of Claude 's works . Turner exhibited a companion piece , '' The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire '' , at the summer exhibition in 1817
eruption of Mount Tambora
1815 eruption of Mount Tambora
Dido building Carthage