Drawing Skills: Mr Turner

Mr Turner (1)

On Sunday I went to see Mike Leigh's "Mr Turner". Like most people I am familiar with Turner's paintings but I knew little of the man. What I learned didn't endear him to me.

The film stars Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Paul Jeeson and Lesley Manville. Spall has been lauded for his performance and it was indeed impressive. The Daily Telegraph describes the performance thus:

Spall coughs and shambles about the place like a moulting, phlegmy Gruffalo, eyes bright and hungry, bottom lip jutting proudly forward like the spout of a custard jug. (2)

The film tells the story of the last 25 years of Turner's life and encompasses the death of his father to whom he seemed devoted and very dependent. The loss affected him very much. A loss that affected both father and son was the committal of Turner's mother to an asylum - the older Mr Turner never forgave himself and it weighed on his son throughout his life. In a powerful scene in a brothel where Turner is sketching all the repressed emotion seems to catch up with Turner and there is complete meltdown.

Timothy Spall as J. M. W. Turner (3)

I think Turner's treatment of women was what really marked him as distasteful to me. Even taking into account the social mores of the time he was portrayed as a sexual predator, abusing his housekeeper (his niece, who became more frail as the film progressed) ignoring the pleas of the mother of his children (to whom he wasn't married) and in sickness accepting the ministrations of a seaside landlady who bought a house on the Thames so they could live together.

Spall was utterly convincing as Turner; eccentric, unlovable, egotistical and self absorbed. Anyone who spits on a painting to add moisture doesn't get my vote!

I came out of the cinema absolutely exhausted and didn't go along with the person sitting behind me who said "it was a bit disjointed".