Claude’s 1648 painting Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba proved too much for J.M.W. Turner. He apparently burst into tears when he first saw it. The busy Italianate harbour scene painted in exquisite detail, illuminated by a tranquil rising sun placed fractionally off-centre, captivated the young English painter.

Claude Lorrain’s mastery of light in landscape and its lasting influence on Turner is the theme of the National Gallery’s exhibition Turner Inspired: in the Light of Claude. Twelve Claude oil paintings, and 45 Turners, including oils, mezzotints, watercolours, pocket sketchbooks (annotated) from the Turner Bequest, plus others’ work, clearly and chronologically illustrate Turner’s lifelong desire to emulate and outshine the revered Old Master.

Myriad comparisons are on offer. From Claude’s classical views to Turner’s borrowings, from Italian landscapes to those of ‘the British Claude’, by means of land, harbour and seascapes it shows Turner learning from and progressing away from Claude.

The highpoint for me was an example of Turner’s radical reworking of contemporary scenes. Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight (1835), with its dazzling moonlight and silvery water has the same transcendent beauty of a Claudian seascape, yet tall grimy ships frame the view instead of trees, and natural light is offset by harsh torchlight from the Tyneside boats.

The only overlap with the Ashmolean Museum’s recent Claude landscapes exhibition is Landscape with Psyche outside the Palace of Cupid (‘The Enchanted Castle’), painted later in Claude’s career (1644). This painting was famous at the end of the 18th century. Its tranquil mood, ethereal castle in deep blue sea, solitary mournful figure of Psyche, painted in a cool practically monochromatic palette, struck a chord with the romantic sensibilities of the age. It inspired Turner and others, including famously John Keats (he wrote Ode to a Nightingale after seeing it in 1819). It is shown alongside a trio of Turner’s responses. An etching from Liber Studiorum (1814) shows trees framing the castle à la Claude. Sunrise, a Castle on a Bay: Solitude (1845-50), a much simplified painting (typically Turner-esque to us today, but a revelation when first exhibited in 1906), has the framework of trees loosened and the castle as good as lost amid the bright suffused light. In his sun-lit painting of Schloss Rosenau (1841), Prince Albert’s castle in Germany, Turner added detail to accommodate tastes. Curator Susan Foister said Turner’s “obvious fawning” suggests he perhaps hoped that the newly-wed Queen Victoria and her husband might purchase it. They did not. Detractors criticised the picture as “a wild extravaganza, a vision of unreality”.

As a nation we have grown to love Turner’s visions of unreality, and sadly fallen out of love with Claude’s. Though this exhibition offers no revelations, it is a great opportunity to indulge love for one ‘painter of light’ and rekindle the other. The show is open until 5 June.