Forum Romanum, pour le musée de M. Soane

The title still carries the address it never reached. Around 1826 the architect John Soane wanted a Turner for his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the crowded London home he was turning into a museum. Turner painted this view of the Roman Forum, its broken columns and arches gathered under a bright Italian sky, and it came out too large for the wall Soane had in mind. Soane sent a cheque for 500 guineas anyway. Turner returned the cheque and kept the picture, which is why its full title still names the museum it was meant for. It hung in his own studio until he died in 1851, and came to the nation with the rest of the Turner Bequest.