Turner's Sketchbooks

Marking 250 years since the birth of J.M.W. Turner, this short documentary explores the closing chapter of a decades-long cataloguing project that has transformed how we see one of Britain’s greatest artists. Commissioned by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in collaboration with Tate, the film captures the final phase of cataloguing Turner’s 37,000 drawings, sketchbooks, and watercolours — the largest holding of preparatory works by a single artist in the world.

From the quiet focus of the Print Room at Tate Britain to the landscapes of Rome, Venice, and Orvieto, the documentary mirrors Turner’s own compulsion to look, record, and move. Retracing his paths across Italian cities and countryside, we sought to bring the sketches filmed in the Print Room to life, stepping where he stepped, seeing what he saw, and transforming pages of rapid marks into the living places that first inspired them.