A groundbreaking new BBC documentary is examining whether JMW Turner, widely considered England's greatest painter, may have been neurodivergent, using his vast collection of artistic works to create an unprecedented psychological portrait. The film, titled "Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks," analyzes Turner's extraordinary output of 37,000 sketches, drawings, and watercolors to explore how his singular artistic vision might have been shaped by both childhood trauma and neurodivergent traits.
The documentary features an impressive lineup of contributors helping to unlock the artist's life story, including actor Timothy Spall, who portrayed Turner in Mike Leigh's acclaimed film "Mr Turner," contemporary artists Tracey Emin and John Akomfrah, Rolling Stones musician Ronnie Wood, psychotherapist Orna Guralnik, and naturalist Chris Packham. These experts bring diverse perspectives to understanding Turner's complex personality and artistic approach.
Chris Packham, who serves as an ambassador for the National Autistic Society, acknowledges the challenges of retrospective diagnosis while pointing to compelling evidence. "As with all of the people we suspect of having had neurodivergent traits, from Alan Turing to Isaac Newton, it's impossible to provide retrospective diagnoses, so we can only offer conjecture about that," Packham explained. "But if Turner did have significant neurodiverse traits, I imagine they would have had quite a profound impact on his art and thinking."
Packham identifies several characteristics in Turner's work and behavior that align with neurodivergent traits, particularly his exceptional attention to detail and tendency toward hyperfocus - a state of intense, prolonged concentration commonly associated with conditions such as ADHD and autism. "I see affinities there in terms of my own autistic thinking and approach to various things," Packham noted. "Turner was clearly a man who, today, we would say had focused interest. I'm still happy to call it obsession."
The naturalist points to Turner's repetitive artistic practices as further evidence, explaining how the artist "repeatedly returned to various locations he landscaped for a number of reasons - one being that he was probably never satisfied with what he'd achieved there." Packham also highlights Turner's meticulous vision, particularly evident in his earlier, less impressionistic works, describing "that ability to perceive it in the first place - every stone, every brick, every window - and how it interlocks with every other shape."
Turner's difficult childhood provides additional context for understanding his psychological makeup. Born and raised in the gritty heart of Georgian London, he overcame humble beginnings to become a young star in the art world, enrolling at the Royal Academy of Arts at just 14 years old and exhibiting his first work there a year later. However, his early life was marked by significant trauma, including the death of his five-year-old sister when he was eight and his mother Mary's psychiatric struggles.
Mary Turner is believed to have suffered from a psychiatric disorder that caused her to "fly into a dangerous temper," and she was eventually admitted to Bethlem hospital, a mental asylum, where she died in 1804. Psychotherapist Orna Guralnik interprets Turner's paintings as expressions of "a tumultuous, turbulent inner world that was quite hidden from his outside expression," suggesting that the artist's "innate skills and talents, plus the experiences he went through as a child, combined into this incredible force."
Guralnik, a New York-based psychologist, describes how the documentary opened new insights into Turner's work: "I always knew Turner's work, but this documentary was an invitation to get to know a little bit about him as a person and suddenly opened this huge door into what these paintings were actually expressing. The inner world that was reflected in the water, the clouds, in the climate." She suggests that Turner's early propensity for drawing buildings reflected "his innate need for stability."
Dr. Amy Concannon, the Manton senior curator of historic British art at Tate Britain, where the Turner-Constable exhibition opens this month, emphasizes the importance of Turner's approximately 300 sketchbooks contained in the Turner bequest. "They tell us where he went and when and get us closer to his mind than anything else," she explained. "From these you get a strong sense of Turner as a determined and focused individual - He was an astoundingly productive artist, creating sketches at lightning speed and filling page after page on his travels."
Concannon notes that while "interpreting them is often tricky," there's "always something new to discover in them, which is partly why it's taken over 20 years to complete the catalogue of them." This extensive body of work provides researchers with unprecedented access to Turner's thought processes and artistic development.
The documentary also explores the fascinating possibility that Turner may have been the first artist to document climate change. Packham observes that Turner "was born in the age of sail and died in the age of steam," and this "rapid change in technology is clearly apparent in his paintings." He cites "The Fighting Temeraire" as an example, where "the ghostly and magnificent old piece of technology that fought at Trafalgar is towed by a black and powerful steam tug," and "Rain, Steam and Speed," where "the steam train portrays the unstoppable force of the Industrial Revolution and everything that followed."
Concannon points to additional works such as "Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight" and "Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth" as evidence of Turner's increasing fascination with changing industrial infrastructure, labor practices, and pollution. She notes that "whilst Turner would not have been aware of climate change as we know it, he had a keen interest in meteorology and of course studied atmospheric effects for the making of his pictures."
The documentary suggests that some of Turner's more dramatic atmospheric effects may have been influenced by real environmental events. Concannon explains that "although he left no evidence that he was deliberately doing so, we might infer that some of his more colorful sunsets were inspired by the aftermath of the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora." Packham elaborates that this eruption "in what was then the Dutch East Indies, basically precipitated climate change over a foreshortened period."
The connection between Turner's artistic vision and environmental awareness takes on particular poignancy in light of contemporary climate concerns. Packham reflects that "Turner liked to be humbled by the sheer incomprehensible power and majesty of nature. It's rather tragic that now it's not a volcano that's shaping our climate and leading to famine and disruption on Earth, it's ourselves." "Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks" will air on BBC Two on Wednesday, November 19.
