A groundbreaking BBC documentary has lifted the veil on one of British art's best-kept secrets: the astonishing private sketchbooks of JMW Turner, revealing both explicit erotic drawings and potential insights into the artist's neurodiversity.
The Hidden Archive: 37,000 Sketches
Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks explores the vast collection of approximately 37,000 drawings left behind by the celebrated painter when he died, most of which have rarely been seen by the public and never before filmed. This treasure trove offers unprecedented access to the mind of an artist often described as an 'elusive character'.
The documentary features an unexpected range of contributors, blending traditional art experts with celebrity voices. Alongside art historians and contemporary British artists appear Timothy Spall, who portrayed Turner in Mike Leigh's biographical film Mr Turner, naturalist Chris Packham, and even Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.
Revealing Turner's Inner World
The programme delves into Turner's traumatic childhood, marked by devastating loss and mental illness in his family. At just eight years old, Turner suffered the death of his younger sister, followed by his mother's descent into mental illness that saw her confined to a nightmarish asylum where she died when Turner was still a teenager.
These early hardships appear to have shaped the young artist's development. His early sketches show buildings captured in obsessive detail, leading to one of the documentary's most striking revelations. Chris Packham, who is autistic himself, describes Turner as 'hyperfocused' in a way that 'maybe speaks to his potential neurodiversity'.
Despite his working-class background in Georgian London, Turner flourished at the Royal Academy. As Tracey Emin perceptively notes, he represented a working-class voice at a time when 'art was for the wealthy'. His painting of Dolbadarn Castle, with its tiny human figure overshadowed by the distant structure, suggests deeper trauma, with clinical psychologist Orna Guralnik wondering if Turner saw himself as the small figure and the institution housing his mother as the distant castle.
The Shocking Erotic Drawings
The archive's most startling revelation comes from Turner's private erotic sketches, which form a massive collection of pencilled pornography. These explicit drawings show sexual organs in startling detail, with everything else rendered as a hastily sketched blur, reflecting the wild, unhappy young artist's preoccupations.
Later in life, when Turner found happiness with Margate landlady Sophia Booth, his erotic drawings evolved significantly. The explicit content remained, but now featured more tenderly erotic depictions where the naked people appeared as fully rounded humans rather than merely sexual objects.
As the documentary makes clear, these private sketches offer glimpses into the artist's intimate inner life that masterpieces like The Fighting Temeraire could never reveal, no matter how long one studies them.
Contemporary Relevance and Environmental Awareness
The Secret Sketchbooks also highlights Turner's remarkable foresight regarding environmental concerns. The programme suggests Turner understood climate change in his own terms, recognising that the Industrial Revolution represented a human-made force powerful enough to taint nature's sublime beauty.
Chris Packham, emerging as the documentary's standout contributor, observes: 'This is where we start to brutalise nature... what was his final mission with those paintings? Was he saying, progress at your peril?' This perspective positions Turner as a man ahead of his time, concerned with themes that resonate strongly with contemporary environmental debates.
The sketchbooks also reveal Turner's practical concerns about money and career, with the artist using his notebooks not just for images but for financial planning, including strategies for reducing prices of unsold paintings - concerns that wealthier, establishment-connected artists wouldn't have shared.
While some celebrity contributions add less value - Ronnie Wood's comparison between paintings developing from sketches and rock songs evolving from musical ideas feels somewhat unenlightening - the overall effect successfully balances accessibility with analytical depth.
The documentary achieves what any good art programme should: it leaves previously uninitiated viewers more likely to visit a Turner exhibition while offering existing Turner experts opportunities to finesse their knowledge. Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks is now available on BBC iPlayer, offering British audiences a fresh perspective on one of the nation's most celebrated artists.
