This dark, tempestuous painting marks the rise of Turner as a full-fledged Romantic painter. Relying on vast scale, dynamic movement, and dramatic subject, his composition appeals primarily to the emotions to communicate its message. Turner's motive for painting this canvas, which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1800, may have been a desire to impress British critics and viewers with his ability to handle serious themes. However, it does appear that the young painter mistitled his picture, as this canvas actually depicts the seventh plague of Egypt, when Moses stretched his arms toward heaven, and thunder, hail and fire rained on the pharaoh and his people.

J.M.W. Turner submitted this painting, the largest the twenty-four-year-old artist had yet attempted, to the prestigious annual Royal Academy exhibition in London in 1800. It was his first venture into the most venerated category of his craft: history painting, which celebrated significant events, usually based on a well-known written source. Turner depicted the biblical verse describing the seventh plague of Egypt, which was hail, rather than the fifth, the disease of livestock, as his title suggests. With this large-scale, epic subject, Turner intended to demonstrate his virtuosity. Yet, perhaps because of his background as a landscape painter, The Fifth Plague of Egypt is a scene devoted more to the action of nature than to human activity. Although the figure of Moses can be discerned at lower right, he is cast in shadow and dwarfed by the vastness of the setting. The dramatic color effects Turner used to capture the thunder, hail, and fire become the true subject of this exotic scene.

Turner's star rose rapidly in London, in part due to the success of his early contributions to the Royal Academy exhibitions. He never ceased to champion pure landscape painting, but with time his palette grew more brilliant and his compositions more daring.

And Moses stretched forth his hands toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground. . . .
-Exodus 9:23