Home > Movies > Documentary > Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks (2025)

Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks (2025)

Name: Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks
Director: Rosie Schellenberg
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2025-11-19
Duration: 59 min
Rating: 9.0
Cast: Timothy Spall, Tracey Emin, John Akomfrah, Ronnie Wood, Chris Packham

IMDb 9.00h 59mDocumentary

Find Where to Stream

Plot Summary

This groundbreaking documentary unlocks the hidden psychology of J.M.W. Turner through his 37,000 private sketches, drawings, and watercolours – an extraordinary archive that reveals the man behind the masterpieces. For the first time on television, these pages – Including erotic sketches previously thought to have been destroyed – are used as a window into Turner’s inner world, exposing his private thoughts, creative obsessions and emotional life. Rarely writing about himself, Turner left behind few clues to his personality. But in his sketchbooks, his restless imagination and vulnerabilities come vividly to life. They guide viewers through Turner’s life and art, revealing how his 37,000 sketches not only chart his creative evolution but also provide an unprecedented psychological portrait of a man both visionary and vulnerable.